Six Porsches to compete in Formula E
The last two Formula E championship titles were already won with a Porsche drive – in 2022/2023 by Jake Dennis for team Andretti and in 2023/2024 by German Pascal Wehrlein for the Zuffenhausen-based works team. In the 2024/2025 season, which starts on Saturday in Brazil, there is a good chance that a Porsche driver will win the title again: Porsche is the only manufacturer to equip three teams with the 99X Electric WCG3 in the coming season.
The Andretti and Tag Heuer teams will be joined by the new Kiro Race team, with Cupra as the main sponsor. Kiro Race competed as ERT (Electric Racing Technologies) in the previous season and emerged from the Nio 333 team. With the inferior material, ERT was trailing behind in 2023/2024. With world-champion material under the bonnet, things should improve in the coming season.
VW brand Cupra is also newly on board with Kiro. Cupra last competed together with Abt, the racing team from southern Germany, which used Mahindra engines and will be the entry team for the new Yamaha-Lola cooperation from the coming season. Cupra has already been associated with Porsche in the past, as both manufacturers are part of the VW Group. Stellantis also has two brands, DS-Penske and Maserati, which share a powertrain.
Joining Kiro Race Co is the logical next step for CUPRA. By combining our technical know-how with the team, we are fully prepared to compete at the highest level,” said Xavi Serra, Global Head of Racing at CUPRA. “Our commitment to Formula E comes from our racing DNA, alongside the format’s ability to give us a competitive platform to develop the future of electric road cars.”
Even if the drive system comes from Porsche, Cupra-Kiro is unlikely to be the favourite for the time being. With Briton Dan Ticktum and Formula E newcomer David Beckmann, Cupra-Kiro has two young drivers in its cars – in Formula E with its complex energy management, experience has tended to pay off so far. The top drivers from the previous seasons have all been competing in Formula E for several years.
There are no changes in the cockpits of the two dominant teams from the previous season – the Porsche and Jaguar squads. The two New Zealanders Mitch Evans and Nick Cassidy will line up for the British team, while Pascal Wehrlein’s team-mate remains Portuguese driver Felix Antonio da Costa.
Still interesting from a German perspective: Within the two Stellantis teams, Maximilan Günther has been promoted to the more highly regarded DS-Penkse team. He swaps places with former world champion Stoffel Vandoorne (then still driving a Mercedes), who will drive for Maserati. Swiss driver Nico Müller, who has competed for Abt-Cupra for the past two years, is another German-speaking driver in the Andretti team.
The season opener will take place in Brazil for the first time this year – in previous years, the first race took place in Mexico City. This is only the second time the race has taken place in Sao Paolo – last year’s premiere was won by Sam Bird in the McLaren-Nissan.
Incidentally, the 2024/2025 season will see Formula E racing with all-wheel drive for the first time. However, the manufacturers will continue to build only the rear drivetrain with electric motor, inverter, gearbox and suspension themselves. The front electric motor, which was only used as a generator last season, is a standardised component from Lucid.
Here is the complete field for the 2024/2025 season:
TAG Heuer Porsche: Pascal Wehrlein #1/Felix Antonio da Costa #13
Jaguar TCS Racing: Mitch Evans #9/Nick Cassidy #37
Andretti-Porsche: Jake Dennis #27/Nico Müller #51
Envision-Jaguar: Robin Frijns #4/Sebastian Buemi #16
Nissan: Norman Nato #17/Oliver Rowland #23
Maserati: Stoffel Vandoorne #2/Jake Hughes #55
Kiro-Cupra: David Meckmann #3/Dan Ticktum #33
McLaren-Nissan: Taylor Barnard #5/Sam Bird #8
DS-Penske: Maximilan Günther #7/Jean-Eric Vergne #25
Lola-Yamaha-Abt: Lucas di Grassi #11/Zane Maloney #22
Mahindra: Nyck de Vries #21/Edoardo Mortara #48
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