Formula E – Syndication Server

Maserati becomes fifth Formula E GEN4 manufacturer

Maserati has become the fifth brand to commit to Formula E’s GEN4 regulations, which will come into force in Season 13, the 2026-27 season. The Italian brand joins Nissan, Jaguar, Porsche, and Lola in signing up for the new ruleset, which will …

Maserati has become the fifth brand to commit to Formula E’s GEN4 regulations, which will come into force in Season 13, the 2026-27 season.

The Italian brand joins Nissan, Jaguar, Porsche, and Lola in signing up for the new ruleset, which will arrive after the two seasons of GEN3 Evo are up. The confirmation of Stellantis’ involvement in GEN4 (through the Maserati brand) means that five of the six current manufacturers will be involved in the next era of Formula E, with only Mahindra yet to officially confirm its intentions.

Maserati joined Formula E in Season 9 (2022-23), at the start of the GEN3 era, following sister Stellantis brand DS which had been involved since the second season of the all-electric series, and has since notched up two race wins.

“We are extremely proud to continue our commitment to a prestigious and innovative platform as Formula E,” said Maserati CEO Santo Ficili. “For this brand, the bond between the track and the road is unbreakable and the evolution of the single-seaters shows how many possibilities for development electric mobility holds.”

The announcement comes ahead of Maserati’s 100th year in racing, and for Jean-Marc Finot, senior VP Stellantis Motorsport, the ongoing Formula E commitment further continues that strong competition legacy.

“For Maserati, motor racing is a place where the brand belongs so we are very happy. Motorsport activities at Stellantis are endurance racing, Formula E, we have also customer racing with, for example, the Maserati GT2, and also high-performance road legal cars, so we are the perfect link between the motorsport activities and the road legal cars,” he said.

“We’ve been racing in Formula E for 10 years with the Maserati and DS brands. We are very happy to keep on developing cutting-edge technologies that are more relevant when we compare the powertrain we had 10 years ago and the powertrain we have now, and we will keep on developing and fighting with the Maserati brand in motorsport.”

For Formula E itself, as a forward-looking series, being able to lean on a historic brand is a big plus point for the championship’s CEO Jeff Dodds.

“We’ve had four manufacturers announce there involvement in GEN4 so far and Maserati very proudly today becomes the fifth and we all believe that the future will be electric vehicle racing but there’s something magnificent when you can fuse the future with the past,” he said. “As of next year Maserati will have been racing cars for 100 years, incredibly successfully. They’re an icon in racing, an icon in sports car development, so for us to be looking towards our future in GEN4 with a brand with so much rich history in racing is an absolute privilege.”

Maserati’s Formula E commitment goes beyond marketing though, with Ficilli highlighting the benefits of racing for the wider business.

Maserati will remain on the Formula E grid until at least 2030. Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images

“For us it’s an investment. It’s important for two reasons: For me it’s a super-good opportunity to get in touch with potential customers or customers that are driving our Folgore (range),” he said.

“And the other point is that we can move technologies from racing to cars that our customers will use, benefiting from this experience that we will have together with our colleagues from Stellantis Motorsport.

“We need to consider what is happening in the automotive industry worldwide, so we must be ready to serve our customers, keeping in consideration the transition that there is between the previous endothermic engine and the electric vehicle, that’s the reason why (we are) looking at the future because the world is asking something of the people that work in the automotive (industry).

“So that’s the reason why we are investing in the world championship, to develop technologies in the future, without forgetting that there are customers that are asking for endothermic, so we are ready, we have a multi-energy platform that can support the requests of our customers worldwide.”

Finot added that the program is “the best of the two worlds” when it comes to marketing and technological development, pointing out that Formula E is the best palace to develop its EV tech for its road-going products.

“What is expected by the customers of electric mobility is to have more mobility and to have more range and Formula E is the perfect laboratory to improve the efficiency of the powertrain, to increase the range, and to work the high-power cells in the battery for fast charging,” he said. “By pooling these technologies in motorsport, we will carry them over to the road legal cars.”

The announcement only covered the Maserati brand, with Finot coy on the continued involvement for DS – which is currently aligned with Jay Penske’s Penske Autosport team.

“For the time being we have decided to engage the Maserati brand in the championship because the DNA of Maserati is very close to motorsport,” he said. “Of course, we’ll consider to engage other brands, knowing that at least we will have four cars in the championship, but it’s still open for the brands and we have some time to make our decision.

“It’s a long-term view for Maserati Corse in motorsport, it’s also a trust in the growth of the Formula E championship for us.”

Finot also confirmed that the Maserati-badge Stellantis powertrain will continue to be developed at Stellantis Motorsport’s base in Versailles, France, but stopped short of confirming that the Monaco-based Monaco Sports Group, which previously operated as Venturi in Formula E, would continue to operate the Italian brand’s works team, saying, “The game is open for GEN4, so everything could be considered.”

James named director of motorsport for McLaren Automotive

NEOM McLaren Electric Racing director and Formula E team principal Ian James is taking on an additional role within the wider McLaren group, becoming the director of motorsport at McLaren Automotive. James replaces the retiring Mick McDonagh – who …

NEOM McLaren Electric Racing director and Formula E team principal Ian James is taking on an additional role within the wider McLaren group, becoming the director of motorsport at McLaren Automotive.

James replaces the retiring Mick McDonagh — who is leaving after over four years with the company — in the role, which will see him oversee all of McLaren’s customer GT racing programs, reporting to Automotive CEO Michael Leiters.

Former Mercedes Formula E team principal James — who is not the Heart of Racing team principal with whom he shares the same name — will continue to run McLaren Racing’s electric motorsport programs alongside his new role, but his new position on the McLaren Automotive side marks something of a return to his roots. James began his career as a manufacturing engineer on the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren road car project between 2001-’05.

“I look forward to welcoming Ian and enhancing collaboration with our Racing colleagues,” said Leiters. “In motorsport, we prove the performance and durability of our cars on the track and demonstrate to the world our racing pedigree and Ian’s experience and success in this arena will accelerate our achievements.

“I would like to thank Mick for his dedication and service to McLaren in leading this significant pillar of our brand. His leadership in this area, in which he has overseen our entry in WEC as well as the expansion of the McLaren Trophy championship, has been integral to its ongoing success.”

In addition to James’ new role, McLaren has also created two new management positions. Long-time factory driver Rob Bell will assume the role of sporting director, while chief engineer Malcolm Gerrish will become technical and operations director, with both reporting to James.

James’ NEOM McLaren Formula E team will begin its third season on Dec. 7 in Sao Paulo with Sam Bird and Taylor Barnard driving, the latter having replaced Jake Hughes in the off-season.

Four-wheel-drive is Formula E’s biggest step – di Grassi

At a time of year where we start to think of gift-giving, Lucas di Grassi will find something that he’s been after for years under his Christmas tree. The new GEN3 Evo Formula E car will introduce four-wheel-drive to the series for the first time. …

At a time of year where we start to think of gift-giving, Lucas di Grassi will find something that he’s been after for years under his Christmas tree.

The new GEN3 Evo Formula E car will introduce four-wheel-drive to the series for the first time. It’s the series’ 11th season, so the move has been a long time coming. di Grassi has been angling for it since Season 5, when Formula E introduced the first incarnation of its GEN2 car.

“When we moved from GEN1 to GEN2, I said ‘let’s go four-wheel-drive’, because four-wheel-drive is the future of electric cars,” said the Lola Yamaha Abt driver. “You need a motor in the front to regen so four-wheel-drive makes sense.

“With GEN3 to GEN3 Evo, the biggest change is the four-wheel-drive, and it’s only 50kW. We have 250 available, just change the software and we have 250 of it. With 50 kW it’s already changed massively, it’s a different car to drive, it’s (got a) much faster response, it’s better, the car is more stable in high speed, the acceleration 0-100 (kph) is a second faster, so it’s a massive difference.”

With the performance electric car market awash with four-wheel-drive offerings, di Grassi feels that the change won’t just be a big shift for the driving and on-track experience, but will also improve Formula E’s road relevance.

“I think Formula E was very bold in creating an electric series when very few people understood that the future of the mobility industry would be electric,” he said. “And as time passes it just becomes more clear that either a large part of mobility or a large part of the powertrains or the whole powertrain will be electric. So electric technology becomes more relevant every time.

Performance electric road cars – such as the Porsche Taycan Turbo GT with Weissach package used as the Formula E safety car – are almost all four-wheel-drive. Simon Galloway/Motorspoort Images

“Currently the technology being developed is still very commercially relevant. You can still transport a lot of what we develop into production cars, and this year especially because it’s four-wheel-drive it becomes even more relevant because pretty much every single car that is an electric sports car is four-wheel-drive. So it’s a big step forward.”

The GEN3 Evo ruleset will last for two seasons before GEN4 arrives, which will bring another big technological leap. di Grassi says “I need a two hour window to say exactly what I want from GEN4”, but did suggest that the improvements coming with GEN3 Evo can be amplified further.

“Although we are a bit late on doing this change, finally we did it and it is the biggest step that Formula E has done and in GEN4 I think all this will go even further,” he said. “The car will probably be made already to be four-wheel-drive from scratch and that’s what I want to see. I want to see tires that have more grip as well and some form of downforce that does not compromise races but you can use a bit more of the power available.”

The changes to the car – which also includes grippier, faster degrading tires – will also change the complexion of races. Whereas Attack Mode previously proved to be more of a hindrance because of the need to drive through an activation zone off-line to unlock the temporary boost in power, now – with four-wheel-drive coming into play as part of Attack Mode – it can bring benefits and open up a range of strategy options.

“It will change massively during the races. Why we wasted Attack mode last season, why we tried to get rid of it, was because you could not put the power down,” di Grassi explained. “You could not put 350kW with the tires we had last year so you didn’t really gain a lot of performance. So you just tried to get Attack Mode out of the way so you don’t lose places and then you would be fighting for the energy in the pack race.

“Now there is a massive difference, I would say at some tracks it could be up to three seconds a lap with the four-wheel-drive. You are able to overtake even in short straights because you gain on acceleration. That has never been tried in motorsport before. I know when I drove in LMP1, and the other cars were not four-wheel-drive, where we could overtake. And the difference is so big on the exit of the corners that you could overtake in 30-40 meters, and in Formula E that will increase the overtaking possibilities even more that were already insane last season.

Four-wheel-drive will increase Formula E’s already ample overtaking opportunities. Malcolm Griffiths/Motorsport Images

“If you are in the wrong position and you have used Attack Mode and there is a safety car and people behind you didn’t use, you’re going to lose your position. So Attack Mode becomes a very useful tool strategically, and that’s going to change the game: How you position yourself? How you use energy? Do you use Attack mode in the beginning? Do you do it at the end? You have the battery heating up and you don’t want to do it at the end, but maybe if there’s a safety car at the end and maybe you lose out, so there is now probably six, seven moving points that you really need to take care (of) to be able to extract the maximum out of the race. So I think it’s going to be very, very interesting.

“My only concern is the wet races. This tire, if it’s wet and cold, it’s worse than my ice drive that I did in Greenland. So that’s my only concern. Apart from that, I think the tire deg is something that the driver can make a difference, the four-wheel-drive, the temperatures of everything, so it will be a very complex race.”

While Formula E has finally caught up with its eventual introduction of four-wheel-drive, di Grassi’s Lola Yamaha Abt team is naturally still behind compared to its rivals, having only joined the series ahead of the upcoming season.

“The feeling is good,” he said of his team’s current position. “Theoretically it is far better than what we had last year but we need to develop everything and we are two years behind everyone.

“A lot of the brake systems, controls, energy, all of that you can carry over where we have to go from scratch. I expect we’ll continue to find performance in the car for a long time and even if we try hard to improve as much as we can, we need time and we need mileage to get to the level of the top performers here.”

Inside Formula E’s groundbreaking all-female test

While women have competed in Formula 1, the World Endurance Championship, the World Rally Championship, World Rallycross, and Formula E before, never has the entire field in one of the FIA’s headline series been made up of only women. That changed …

That changed at Formula E’s pre-season test in Spain last week when the final session of the four-day test was dedicated exclusively to female drivers. Each of the series’ 11 teams participated, with 18 drivers taking to the track for three hours at Circuito del Jarama.

“Opportunities like this allow you to spotlight drivers that have a lot of potential,” NEOM McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante tells RACER. “I feel like it’s a very rare opportunity to get behind the wheel of these cars. We all know how expensive it can be and how limited (the opportunities) are.

Abbi Pulling, who topped the times for Nissan, agrees, saying that without Formula E organizing the group test, opportunities for female drivers would still be limited.

“The opportunity is huge,” she says. “Without Formula E’s support creating an all-female test, as well as all the teams agreeing to run the girls, I probably wouldn’t have had an opportunity to step into this car, so I’m over the moon and I can’t thank everyone involved enough. Hopefully it’s not the last time.

“I think the more things like this, the better. It creates opportunities for everyone early in their career to develop and adapt and learn and work with a very big and established team. The opportunity is super-valuable.”

The drivers came from a variety of backgrounds, with drivers from lower formulae driving alongside the likes of sports car racers, and with a few more experienced Formula E testers sprinkled in, too. For all of them, driving Formula E’s new all-wheel-drive GEN3 Evo car was a wildly different experience – but a useful one.

Andretti’s Chloe Chambers and Nerea Marti were among 18 female drivers in action last week. Malcolm Griffiths/Motorsport Images

“I think adapting to the car was a big challenge,” says Chloe Chambers, who tested with Andretti. “It was a good challenge because it was something that I was not used to, so it was nice to have to adapt to a new driving style. It’s definitely something that I’ll be able to use in the future, and hopefully be able to work on it a bit more in the Formula E paddock in the future.

“I went and did some simulator prep about a month ago in Banbury, so I got to run through the systems and get a general idea of how the car will be in real life. Of course, everything changes when you start driving it in real life. The whole feeling is different – you have the feeling of the G-forces, and of course you have that bit of fear aspect to it as compared to the sim, but I think for sure it was an extra challenge having to learn the track as well as the car.

Bustamante adds, “The driving technique is very different. The brake shapes the amount of high speed that we have to endure in the high speed corners, so I think it took a while to adapt to that and build the confidence. Those were the key areas we worked on.”

The test was far from being a box-ticking exercise. Before taking to the track, teams and drivers prepared for several weeks, and in some cases months beforehand. That preparation was hampered by the test’s late switch from Valencia to Jarama near Madrid, but while the track was an unknown, the drivers were ready get to work right away.

“Obviously we did our preparations for Valencia, so we were on the sim – I’ve been on the sim since January just in the hope that I could get behind the wheel of a Formula E car when that opportunity comes, and when it did, it all paid off,” says Bustamante. “I feel like we were really prepared for it. Coming to Madrid, a new track, we made sure I got all my fundamentals in and all the basics, and that I had strong foundations so that whichever track I went to, I‘m able to optimize the car.”

Pulling had less track acclimatization to deal with, having taken to Nissan’s simulator later than her fellow drivers. She jumped in just before getting on the plane to Spain, so she at least had an idea of what to expect following the venue switch.

“To be honest the venue change didn’t affect my preparation at all,” she says. “My simulator day was the week of the test, so by the time I was on the sim we already knew we were going to Madrid, so it worked in my favor to an extent and I got to drive the track. I hadn’t even heard of the track before, let alone knew what way round it went, so that was very useful.”

Nissan’s Abbi Pulling had less pressure than some others when it came to track acclimatization. Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images

Every time racing cars take to a track, the first thing anyone looks at are the times. Pulling’s pace-setting time was 3.481s off Mitch Evan’s best from the week – with no prior Formula E experience and 159 fewer laps under her belt, it should be stressed. She was happy to go quickest, but that wasn’t what the day was about for her.

“I think the day was more about learning,” she says. “Obviously it’s nice to be fast, but I wanted to make sure I was very productive with the team and was receptive to any feedback they gave and show that I can apply what they ask because the driving style is very different.

“At the start I was carrying maybe a bit too much speed in the corners, which isn’t the most efficient way to drive this car, so I had to change that. And there’s still a ways to go in Sector 2 and Sector 3 but in Sector 1 I think by the end we were really good around the tight and twisty (sections).”

Bustamante had a spell up top as well, eventually ending the day third, with Indy NXT race-winner Jamie Chadwick – driving for Jaguar – splitting her and Pulling. Nevertheless, she couldn’t hide the fact that her competitive nature began to creep out as the clock wound down.

“Definitely the competitive nature came out towards the end once we put on the new tires,” she says. “Immediately I just kicked it up a notch and I was P1 for quite a while. We set an early benchmark and we just couldn’t improve anymore because we’d already used our new set of tires.

“We’re not far away from the reference lap time of the main series drivers that have already done three days of testing here, and I feel like if we did a full day we could have closed that gap down. So I think we just need opportunities, and once they arise we’re able to perform.”

The desire for more opportunities was a common theme. While Andretti driver Nerea Marti admits that other categories might not be able to arrange similar female-only outings, the test has been good for increasing overall awareness of the underutilized female talent that’s out there.

Nerea Marti thinks the test will open the door for more female Formula E opportunities. Andrew Ferraro/Motorsport Images

“Of course not all the categories can do this type of testing but Formula E can do it and did, so that’s really positive,” she says. “I think it’s a really good opportunity for us to get visibilit,y and for them to have us testing is a positive. The afternoon was really short so I would like to go (again) in the future.”

Others feel the test has opened up the very viable prospect of them spending their futures in Formula E.

“I think the way Formula E has handled it is really good,” says Pullings. “They gave us a fair shot at driving the cars, every driver was able to take something out of it and hopefully put on a good enough showing to come back in the future for another test, and even a seat in the future in Formula E. So for sure it’s possible in other series to do the same thing.

“The more laps I did, the more comfortable I felt so I think if I have gotten some more time, the results would be even better, and I would become more comfortable in the car as well. I hope that this becomes a more regular thing and will eventually lead to a full-time seat in the future.

Bustamante points out that while the test was billed as a Womens’ Test, there was no difference in the effort put in by way the teams and series compared to the regular testing earlier in the week.

NEOM McLaren’s Bianca Bustamante says that the women drivers have just as much chance of being as quick as the men with more track time. Alastair Staley/Motorsport Images

“The teams and the whole FE community has been amazing and supportive throughout this process,” she says. “I’ve honestly felt so welcome in the paddock. Working with the engineers, they’ve treated me as if I was just a driver, same as any other driver, and the amount of professionalism they treated me with was great.

“I think that’s what’s always needed – to not be treated differently because you’re a woman. Setting that standard is important, and I definitely felt that.”

While female drivers remain a minority in global motorsport, it’s not an entirely new phenomenon in Formula E. In the first season of the all-electric championship, Michela Cerruti and Simona de Silvestro competed. Chadwick, Alice Powell , and Marta Garcia (all of whom were also in action last week) have tested since. But it’s been almost a decade since one raced, and there’s hope last week’s test could be a step in the direction of getting a woman to the top of the motorsport tree.

“The opportunity is amazing. Formula E is the pinnacle of electric racing, similar to how Formula 1 is the pinnacle of open-wheel racing,” says Chambers. “I didn’t quite realize this until (the test), but it’s almost like the equivalent of going and driving a Formula 1 car, especially with the level of competition that you have here in the paddock. You have many successful racing drivers coming here from Formula 1, endurance racing, all types of racing, so it’s really cool to be able to drive such a car so early on in my career.

Marti can already foresee the return of women to Formula E off the back of the test.

“I think it’s very possible to do the championship in the future,” she says. “They want a girl in the championship so I think it’s just time, just preparing the girls and let’s see if we can be there in the future competing in Formula E.”

Having already said she’d be open to racing in Formula E, Alpine Academy driver and current F1 Academy points leader Pulling says that idea was only reinforced off the back of her running last week.

“I think even before this test, Formula E was something that I looked at, and after this test it’s just made that much more of a thought in my mind and a realistic stepping stone,” she says. “What we’ve done at this test is create a solid platform with me and Nissan, and what to work on if I was ever to jump back in the Formula E car.

Lola planning next steps in its racing revival

Following its entry into Formula E, Lola Cars has started exploring the next steps of its revival. The brand emerged from 12 years of dormancy earlier this year when it announced its intentions to enter the all-electric series as a powertrain …

Following its entry into Formula E, Lola Cars has started exploring the next steps of its revival.

The brand emerged from 12 years of dormancy earlier this year when it announced its intentions to enter the all-electric series as a powertrain manufacturer in collaboration with Yamaha. It was part of a new strategy for the famed chassis and car manufacturer which will see it focus on alternative technologies going forward.

“We want to be a leader in sustainable motorsport. Why sustainable motorsport? In my view, motorsport plays two roles: on the one hand, it’s an entertainment sport, on the other hand it’s a platform for innovation for the broader automotive and mobility space,” Lola chairman Till Bechtolsheimer said at Formula E’s pre-season test in Spain last week. “I think broader automotive and mobility space is pretty singularly focused on decarbonizing and so I think that’s the direction that motorsport’s directly going towards as well.

“It’s a somewhat obvious focus on the three areas that are of broader interest: electrification, hydrogen, sustainable fuels and materials. So we’re working actively on projects in each three of those camps, the first being the electrification box ticked with Formula E.”

Lola customer cars, like this Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 from 2013, were once a significant player in sports cars — something that Bechtolsheimer is keen to recreate, within the company’s sustainability ethos. Scott LePage/Motorsport Images

With that project now a reality, Bechtolsheimer indicated that a return to the sports car arena could be next.

“We’ve got an interesting project on the go at the moment on the sustainable fuels and materials side that we’ll be announcing in 2025,” he revealed. “Hydrogen is a moving target at the moment. We’re expecting updates from the FIA soon in terms of what they’re planning in conjunction with the ACO at Le Mans — that’s something that we’re keeping a keen eye on.

“We’d love to be involved in the Le Mans paddock and sports car paddock in general. I have a personal passion for sports car racing. We’ll be giving more updates next year.”

In addition to that, an expanded footprint in Formula E is likely for the company. While it only supplies the Abt team at the moment, all manufacturers committed to the current GEN3 ruleset, as well as GEN4 which will arrive in 2026, must commit to being able to supply to at least two teams.

Bechtolsheimer says that expansion is “not something that concerns us,” adding that branching out would be a good fit for Lola’s DNA historically as a supplier to multiple teams.

“It’s not part of the plan per se, but it’s probably a more natural fit for Lola than it is for some of the other manufacturers,” he said.

Lola’s motorsport director Mark Preston called the idea a “logical trajectory,” pointing out that the additional data afforded by having at least two more cars on track would be beneficial.

“That’s part of the rules so we had to sign up for that in GEN3 Evo as well, and we all know more data is more useful as well,” he said. “It’s good at the moment to be just by ourselves to just get ourselves going, and then I think it makes sense if we have a customer team or partnership then more data is better and that will be better for the future. So I think that’s a logical trajectory as well.”

At present, Lola is one of just two manufacturers supplying a single team with Mahindra being the other, supplying its own factory team. Jaguar (Jaguar TCS Racing and Envision Racing), Nissan (Nissan and NEOM McLaren), and Stellantis (DS Penske and Maserati MSG Racing) all supply two teams apiece, while Porsche supplies its own works team and the Andretti outfit, as well as providing last year’s tech to the new Kiro Race Co. organization.

Andretti’s Dennis ready to apply lessons learned from thwarted title defense

Season 9 Formula E champion Jake Dennis is coming into this campaign rejuvenated after losing his crown last season, according to Andretti team principal Roger Griffiths, and his driver agrees he’s coming in with a better mindset. While Dennis was a …

While Dennis was a race winner and further three-time podium finisher in 2023-24, his form fell away towards the second half of the year as he finished seventh in the standings. Ahead of Season 11, the Briton admits there were things he could have done better, but that he didn’t feel like competing as the reigning champion put him under any particular pressure.

“I personally felt like my motivation last year was high,” Dennis told RACER. “I was not particularly lazy, but I also didn’t quite look into driving techniques to my absolute best. The motivation was there to succeed, we had an incredible first half of the year, and it also died off towards the end.

“Last year, I literally felt no pressure in terms of having the No. 1 on my car. And actually, (I was) maybe probably more relaxed, just purely because I felt like I’d achieved — I’d shown everyone what I can do. And I still have that to my name now, I’m still a world champion, so from my side, it doesn’t change all that much. It is just a sticker, right? At the end of the day, I’m driving the race car as fast as I possibly can.

“From my side, I just want to win races, podiums, and that’s generally enough to wrap up the championship. It’s good to be back in the car. It’s been a long time since London, where we didn’t do too well, and it’s good to show I can still drive.”

Jake Dennis and his team were eager to turn the page during pre-season testing at Jarama. Malcolm Griffiths/Motorsport Images

At the four-day pre-season test in Jarama this week, Griffiths says that he’s already seen Dennis in “a much better place.”

“I don’t think Jake personally had his best year last year, and I think he’d be the first to admit to that,” Griffiths said. “He seems to have come here with a much more focused mindset. Last year, when he had No. 1 on the car, he had the target on his back immediately. I think now that he’s back to No. 27 the pressure is off a little bit. From that perspective, you can just stay focused on what it is he does well, which is driving fast.

“I think there were a lot of distractions last year, and I think he’s in a much better place — we’re already seeing that. The focus is there, the detail is there, the preciseness is there.”

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Porsche customer Andretti ultimately didn’t feature in the championship equation towards the end of last season — which ended up being a straight fight between the factory Porsche team and Jaguar TCS Racing — but rather than a slump in the team’s own performance, Griffiths feels that it was more indicative of the Formula E field as a whole improving in what was the second season of the GEN3 formula.

“I don’t think we did anything fundamentally wrong last year,” he said. “I think what we saw was an increased level of competitiveness, particularly from the manufacturer teams. Maybe that was some of the challenges for the manufacturers in developing a car, working with a customer, whereas we had the luxury of just focusing on performance. They were having to do all of the stuff, plus trying to focus on performance.

“At the end of the day, if you look at where the championship standings ended up, we were the best of the non-manufacturer teams. We were the only non-manufacturer team to get a race win.

“There are things that we could have done better, I should say. I think there was a few procedural things that we really tightened up on and you’ve seen that coming already. Formula E now is so competitive, it is not that magic silver bullet to fix everything. It’s just the attention to detail, and it only takes a little bit.”

Maserati gives a nod to its past with new Formula E livery

Maserati: It’s one of motorsport’s most evocative names. And while the name typically accompanies thoughts of days gone by, it’s still at the cutting edge of modern motorsport. These days the brand’s headline motorsport program is in Formula E, …

Maserati: It’s one of motorsport’s most evocative names. And while the name typically accompanies thoughts of days gone by, it’s still at the cutting edge of modern motorsport.

These days the brand’s headline motorsport program is in Formula E, where there’s not a single black and white photo or grainy silent film to be seen. Yet as it looks towards its 110th anniversary on December 1, the company has brought the past and the present together with its new Tipo Folgore GEN3 Evo.

The ‘Blu Infinito’ blue – the brand’s signature color in motorsport these days in place of the Rosso Corsa of yesteryear – remains, but complemented with Fouriserie Liquid Metal Rose Gold accents rather than the signature copper from the brand’s Folgore electric range used alongside the blue previously.

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“It has been a great honor to work for the third year running on the livery design of our Formula E single-seater, said Klaus Busse, Maserati’s head of design and the man behind the car’s new look. “This year’s aesthetics, while continuing to build on the brand’s journey of electrification symbolized by the Folgore copper color, are intended to celebrate Maserati’s wealth of history in motorsport with a tribute to the milestones of 110 years of history, an anniversary we’re celebrating early next month.”

It’s more than a simple design choice though: look closer and you’ll see the rose gold element made up of reminders from Maserati’s illustrious history. Fangio, Moss, Nuvolari, et al – the names of the brand’s legendary past drivers are all there, as are the dates and locations of the races, and the cars that have brought the team wins over the years.

“It continues to be an enormous honor for us to represent such an iconic automotive brand in Formula E and racing with the now-unmistakable Maserati Tipo Folgore blue is a big responsibility,” said Cyril Blais, who took over as team principal at Maserati MSG Racing in the off-season.

“Maserati has a formidable pedigree on and off the racetrack and it was our privilege to return the Trident to the top step of the podium in Seasons 9 and 10. With this striking livery that bears witness to Maserati’s impressive motorsport history and the team’s success in the championship, we look forward to fighting for more landmark victories together in Season 11.”

Maserati enters its third year of Formula E with two wins in the bank over the last two seasons courtesy of Maximilian Guenther in Jakarta and Tokyo, but much like the look of its car, the driver lineup has been refreshed, too.

Season 8 champion Stoffel Vandoorne has joined the team from fellow Stellantis team DS Penske, while highly-rated youngster Jake Hughes – already a four-time polesitter and a podium finisher – has moved over from NEOM McLaren as Maserati looks to elevate itself from regular podium contenders to serial race winners and title challengers.

The pair were in action in Spain this week during the official four-day Formula E pre-season test, where Vandoorne clocked the eighth-fastest time of the week with Hughes 11th. But with a lot of the focus of pre-season being on race pace and long runs, the team’s true competitive potential in relation to the rest of the field remains to be seen. The season kicks-off in earnest on December 7 in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Evans leads the way as Formula E testing concludes

Mitch Evans moved to the fore as Formula E’s official pre-season testing concluded in Spain. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver, who lapped Circuito del Jarama in 1m27.461s as times continued to fall, set his best time late in Friday morning’s three-hour session and was 0.141s quicker than Kiro Race Co.’s Dan Ticktum. The latter completed an impressive pre-season campaign for the team, with David Beckmann going fifth quickest in the sister car.

Between them were TAG Heuer Porsche’s Pascal Wehrlein and NEOM McLaren’s Taylor Barnard. Oliver Rowland was sixth as the last of the drivers under 1m28s on Friday morning, ahead of Maserati MSG’s Stoffel Vandoorne and Zane Maloney, who returned to the track after being sidelined on Thursday afternoon due to an issue with his Lola Yamaha Abt’s data recorder.

Maloney had gone quickest after 40 minutes, taking top spot off Antonio Felix da Costa who ended the session ninth, with Norman Nato completing the top 10 to ensure both Nissans — and three of the four cars powered by the Japanese brand — finished Friday in the top half of the times.

Nick Cassidy was 11th quickest in the second factory Jaguar, ahead of DS Penske’s Maximilian Guenther, Andretti’s Jake Dennis and Sam Bird in the other McLaren. Sebastien Buemi of Envision Racing and Lola Yamaha Abt driver Lucas di Grassi were 15th and 16th respectively, with Robin Frijns 17th in the other Envision and Nico Mueller 18th.

Jean-Eric Vergne in the second DS Penske, Maserati’s Jake Hughes, and the Mahindras of Edoardo Mortana and Nyck de Vries rounded out the field.

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All 22 drivers completed their best times on full power, although — as has been the case all week — with teams working on varied programs, the true competitive picture remains unclear.

Evans’ table-topping time from Friday morning was the fastest overall time from pre-season testing, with Ticktum and Wehrlein’s Friday bests also putting them in the top three overall for the week.

Beckmann’s session-best from Thursday morning put him fourth on the week-long chart, ahead of Barnard’s Friday time, while da Costa’s best from the cooler Thursday morning run put him sixth overall.

Rowland and Vandoorne made it to seventh and eighth in the overall ranking with their times from the final session, with de Vries and Maximilian Guenther ninth and 10th with their Thursday afternoon and Thursday morning times respectively.

The best times came almost exclusively from the week’s final three sessions across Thursday and Friday, except for Andretti driver Mueller, who ended the week as the 22nd-fastest driver with his lap from Wednesday afternoon.

While official pre-season testing has now concluded, there will be one final three-hour session on Friday afternoon for a field of 18 female drivers.

In a change to the previously announced driver lineup, Sophia Floersch will not be driving for Nissan, that team instead fielding a single car for Abbi Pulling. The late change to the pre-season schedule, which involved a move from Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia and a delay of one day — moving the female driver test from Thursday morning to Friday afternoon — meant that Floersch had an unavoidable clash with another prior commitment.

SESSION RESULTS

OVERALL TEST RESULTS

Beckmann tops third day of Formula E testing at Jarama

Kiro Race Co. continued to impress in Formula E pre-season testing with David Beckmann setting the fastest time of the third day of running at Circuito del Jarama. While the morning three-hour session took place in cooler and cloudier conditions …

Kiro Race Co. continued to impress in Formula E pre-season testing with David Beckmann setting the fastest time of the third day of running at Circuito del Jarama.

While the morning three-hour session took place in cooler and cloudier conditions than the afternoon – or the previous two days – it was then that the fastest laps were set. Beckmann’s best lap of 1m27.755s in the customer Porsche car, set three laps before his morning running wrapped, was 0.653s quicker than Maximilian Guenther’s pace-setting time from Wednesday.

Beckmann – a Porsche development driver who, along with Dan Ticktum in the other Kiro car, is only signed for this week’s testing thus far – was only 0.008s quicker than Pascal Wehrlein, who was the first driver to crack the 1m 28s barrier earlier on in the most recent-spec Porsche. His factory team partner Antonio Felix da Costa was third as the last driver to dip below the 1m28s mark. Both Porsches had a spell at the top of the timesheets early on, as did Maserati MSG Racing’s Jake Hughes, who ended the morning fifth behind DS Penske driver Guenther driving with the same Stellantis powertrain.

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Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans went sixth quickest ahead of Nissan returnee Norman Nato, with NEOM McLaren’s Taylor Barnard, Oliver Rowland in the other Nissan, and DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne rounding out the top 10.

Aside from logging laps, Thursday afternoon’s schedule also included a 24-lap “race exercise” – effectively a full mock race – which cut down the regular running. It offered a first chance to see four-wheel-drive race starts – a new feature also available in qualifying duels and after Attack Mode activation – as well as a first chance to see the new GEN3 Evo cars competing side-by-side. Yellow flag, safety car, and pit stop charging procedures were also run through.

That was “won” by Wehrlein ahead of da Costa with Jaguar TCS Racing’s Nick Cassidy third after being passed with two laps to go. Andretti’s Jake Dennis and Cassidy’s teammate Evans completed the top five.

Lola Yamaha Abt’s Zane Maloney failed to start the simulated race due to a technical issue that kept him out for the rest of the afternoon. In a statement provided to RACER by Abt Lola Yamaha, the team explained, “An electrical fault triggered the accident data recorder to flag a crash event which resulted in the battery switching off as per safety regulations. The team is working on a solution and both cars will be back on track tomorrow.”

Nato, Rowland, Barnard, Sam Bird, Vergne, Lucas di Grassi, and Sebastien Buemi also weren’t classified in the race simulation, although their failures to finish weren’t consequential – they opted to end their runs early in anticipation of resuming regular testing afterwards. All finishers were covered by 17.312s.

When the afternoon session resumed properly, it was largely slower as teams continued to conduct varying programs in preparation of the upcoming season. Nyck de Vries was quickest with a 1m28.101s, while de Vries’ time, set late in the day, was 0.41s quicker than Hughes’ morning best, but behind the rest of the morning’s pacesetters. His Mahindra teammate Edoardo Mortara was third, just 0.262s back, with Evans splitting the two.

Testing concludes on Friday with a final three-hour session in the morning, as well as another three-hour session in the afternoon reserved exclusively for female drivers. Friday will also be the first time this week that fans will be in attendance.

Morning session times
Afternoon session times
Race exercise results

First taste of 4wd has Bird hopeful Formula E will expand its use

Sam Bird was left hungry for more after sampling Formula E’s new four-wheel-drive system during pre-season testing at at the Spanish circuit of Jarama Four-wheel drive will come into play when the Gen 3 Evo machines’ full 350kw power reserve in …

Sam Bird was left hungry for more after sampling Formula E’s new four-wheel-drive system during pre-season testing at at the Spanish circuit of Jarama

Four-wheel drive will come into play when the Gen 3 Evo machines’ full 350kw power reserve in unlocked in qualifying duels and after Attack Mode activation. After a taste of that extra grunt, the NEOM McLaren driver wishes it was the starting point for Formula E rather than being an alternate strategic factor.

“When you are running a four-wheel drive, the car comes alive. It’s so much fun; it’s really cool,” Bird said. “I’d love it to be permanent. I mean, it’d be nice if 350 all-wheel drive was what you run for the racing, and then if we had 450 or 500 kilowatts for qualifying — that would be crazy.

“It’s the way that you can get off corners, absolutely, It’s gonna be massive.”

As for his own team’s prospects, Bird was confident there is “more time for us to show” after a promising start to pre-season testing for NEOM McLaren. For much of the first three days of running, Bird and teammate Taylor Barnard have featured in the top half of the timesheets as they worked through various development items with their new Nissan-powered GEN3 Evo machines during the four-day test.

“I’m impressed with the work that we’ve been able to do,” Bird told RACER. “Obviously, it’s not all about being the quickest — we’re getting through a program that we designed prior to getting here, and so far, very happy with the work we’ve done.”

Both McLarens – as well as the Maserati MSG Racing cars of former McLaren driver Jake Hughes and Stoffel Vandoorne – spent Wednesday afternoon working on race preparation, opting to forgo the full complement of 350kW as they completed longer runs.

“Everything that we’ve done, we’ve done it for a reason,” Bird said. “Again, I’m happy with the work that we’ve done. I can’t say much more about what we were doing in the race runs, obviously, but we’ve crossed the Ts and dotted the Is on that work. And tomorrow we get to do some different work.”

But while Bird and Barnard have racked up lots of trouble-free miles and the data that comes with it, the overall picture remains unclear, with the teams’ own programs being shrouded in secrecy and Formula E’s new Hankook tires providing another new element to get to grips with on top of the refreshed car.

“It’s too early to say,” said Bird. “I think this is a question that would be better asked after three or four races, not day one and a half pre-season. I don’t know where we’re at compared to competitors, because the tire is so peaky that I don’t know who’s used more tires, who’s done more 350 (kW) laps, who’s had a clear track, who hasn’t.

“There’s more time for us to show — I suppose in that way that we have time in the pocket if we want to. And with regards to efficiency, we don’t know yet, because nobody’s showing their hand with that either.”

Bird is one of Formula E’s most experienced drivers with 128 starts and 12 wins, both putting him third overall on those respective lists, but on the other side of the garage is one of the series’ youngest drivers. After starring in a three-race stint while Bird was sidelined by injury last season, Barnard isn’t a rookie in the truest sense of the word, and Bird’s been impressed with his new teammate.

“He did three brilliant races last year when I had an accident in Monaco. He seamlessly slotted into the team,” Bird said of Barnard. “Everybody here really enjoys working with him, as do I. He’s extremely quick, has a wise head on young shoulders and I’m looking forward to having a season or two alongside Taylor.”

In just under a month, the Formula E season kicks off in Sao Paulo. It was the site of Bird’s most recent win, and McLaren’s first, which gives him confidence for a repeat performance.

“I’ve had some decent results in Brazil, obviously,” he said, recalling his last- corner, last-lap pass on Mitch Evans for the victory last season. “I’ve had a third and a win there, so something similar would be nice.”