Post-Race Reaction
Pascal Wehrlein’s win at Homestead was the eighth of his Formula E career and the third successive Porsche win on U.S soil after Antonio Felix da Costa’s brace of victories in Portland last June.
The win saw Wehrlein haul himself from eighth to third position in the drivers’ standings and he now sits just three points behind teammate Antonio Felix da Costa, who in turn reduced the deficit to leader Oliver Rowland from 29 to 15 points in Miami.
Polesitter and ‘on the road winner’ Norman Nato continued his streak of always scoring points on U.S soil with his sixth place finish yesterday. Nato took seventh places at New York and Portland in 2021 and 2024 respectively, while he also gained a ninth at Portland in his first stint at Nissan in 2023.
Jean-Eric Vergne’s poor race and no-points score ensured that none of the 22 drivers have now scored in each race of the 2024-25 season now. Vergne’s race was punctuated by poor grip that saw him suffer contact with Nico Mueller’s Andretti Porsche and then lose his DS Penske altogether and endure a grassy moment halfway through the race.
The Stellantis powered cars of DS Penske and Maserati MSG failed to take a single point at Homestead for the first time ever since the advent of the Gen3 era in January 2023. Jean-Eric Vergne was a lacklustre 12th, while his teammate Maximilian Guenther was eliminated in the red flag inducing shunt that also accounted for Jake Hughes. Stoffel Vandoorne ended the race 14th after having his attack mode compromised by the red flag.
Talking to FEN about the accident which delayed himself and ended Hughes’ race, Guenther said that he was “on the inside in the chicane alongside Jake Hughes in the Maserati and then very late Buemi tried to make three cars fit in that chicane. That was ambitious and obviously didn’t work out. I was in a sandwich so I tried to pull out but there was nowhere to go.”
Jake Hughes told FEN that he felt he had “nothing to do with it (the shunt)” and that “I thought I was only racing Max into the corner. Honestly, I feel like I understand Seb’s point, there’s a gap there and but making it three wide in a corner that is barely one wide, I should say a bit over ambitious. I’m not saying it’s cynical or anything like that I think he went from a gap that he thought was there, but it was always going too close in my opinion.”
CUPRA KIRO grabbed a useful six points thanks to a stealthy and energy savvy run for Dan Ticktum. His teammate David Beckmann shone in qualifying having made it through to the duels against pole sitter Norman Nato, although a mistake on his part scuppered his lap overall. Beckmann’s race ended after an off-track excursion in the race that he felt was contributed to by a Jaguar.
“I think Evans or Cassidy, or somebody pushed me off into T9,” Beckmann told FEN. “They slowed at the chicane on the left side, completely and then I was in the dust. Obviously, the tyres locked up but I hit somebody’s front wing and I got a puncture and even my suspension damaged afterwards.”
The points for CUPRA KIRO meant that Envision slipped to the foot of the points table after it could only manage four points via Robin Frijns’ run to eighth place. The Envision driver had his best event of the season so far, qualifying fourth and then running in the leading group for some of the race. Frijns was ultimately one of the five drivers that were compromised by not being able to use all their attack mode, taking the finishing line a close third but then being shuffle back to eighth in the final classification.
Talking to FEN, Frijns said that despite the disappointment of dropping from third to eighth place thanks to his attack mode penalty, he was happy with several aspects of gaining his first points score since last July’s London EPrix.
“I was pretty pleased indeed how it went and I felt good in the car,” said the Dutch ace. “I think we did a really good job in qualifying but we really maximised our potential there. Even though people were saying you were on for fighting for pole I’m not 100% sure. I think that Nissan was still a bit quicker than us today, and the Porsche as well. In the race we had a plan which we followed quite nicely and then I felt quite strong. Even after the red flag, I felt like I was closing the gap to Pascal in front of me.”
Andretti’s Roger Griffiths explained that Jake Dennis’ race was heavily compromised by the safety car for Nyck de Vries’ stopped Mahindra, saying “that was really Jake’s race done, and I know he was struggling with traction issues from pretty early on in the race. Even when we got into attack mode, he wasn’t able to deploy in quite the same way as before. So, to scrape a couple of points with some of the challenges we were having, I think was quite fortuitous.”
Lola heralded its first International racing podium as a works team since Mark Blundell took third in the International F3000 championship race at Brands Hatch in August 1988, as Lucas di Grassi claimed a memorable second place yesterday. Blundell is an occasional visitor to Formula E races in his capacity as manager of Maserati MSG’s Jake Hughes.
Speaking to FEN about the result, Lola owner Till Bechtolsheimer said that the achievement felt like “a win on many levels.”
“It’s a huge milestone. I’m a bit speechless to be honest, we weren’t expecting it obviously,” said Bechtolsheimer, who lives in Florida. “This was the first race that we came into the race with performance in mind. Every race up until now has been about, debugging, reliability, getting the basics right. We’re just at the very beginning of trying to extract the performance out of the package that we’ve got. And here we are on the podium, so it’s really encouraging, it’s a huge boost to the whole team.”
Nick Cassidy’s race was compromised by being adjudged to have gone over track limits three times at Turn 12. The Jaguar TCS Racing driver was handed a five second penalty, which saw him drop from an eight place finish to 15th after the penalty was applied.
“From Nick’s perspective, it is really difficult when you’re in traffic as you don’t always have the option of where you can place your car,” James Barclay told FEN. “But listen, we have the stewards don’t make this up and they can see a car over a limit line, and that’s clearly the decision they’ve made.”
2025/26 Calendar Latest
FEN has learned that a similar structure to the present season will kick off the 2025/26 season, with Sao Paulo to begin the campaign probably on the first weekend of December this year. Mexico City and Jeddah is expected to then follow, in early 2026, with Homestead or a race around the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami coming soon after.
The third iteration of the Tokyo EPrix will see another time of year explored from the original March date last year and this year’s May slot. FEN understands that the earliest the 2026 event can happen is late June, although a second option for a late July date is also being explored. The reason for the change is due to some civil engineering work taking place at the Big Sight are in the Ariake district of where the EPrix is held.
This fact is the reason that the London EPrix is likely to end the season in mid-August with its traditional final double header. Formula E completed an extension to its original deal with the ExCeL Arena.
Cape Town is still in the mix for a possible February race on a similar date to its 2023 appearance. The Mother City and Formula E have been talking closely for several months but a deal is still yet to be struck and some doubt still remains on whether this race or a second event in the U.S, possibly in Phoenix, will happen in 2026.
“Cape Town is a real conversation,” Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds told FEN in Miami. “I think what I would say on Cape Town is, whether it’s next year or it’s beyond next year, I get a lot of love for Cape Town from the people that did attend it (in 2023). It was well attended by crowds and teams loved it, a nice vibe, a great city. We have an appetite to be back racing in that city.”
FEN also understands that a central African city is also talking to Formula E, as is Sanya on the Chinese island of Hainan, which is keen to host a second race after the 2019 event. A possible return to Santiago is not on the agenda for 2026.
Chances of Formula E re-locating its Miami ePrix to the Hard Rock Stadium circuit used by F1 are still believed to be possible for next season, although a deal is believed to still need some work. Miami Grand Prix president Tyler Epp was spotted enjoying the Homestead spectacle with Formula E Operations bigwigs as he attended the event with his son.
Media News
A new in-depth documentary detailing several drivers’ 2023-24 Formula E seasons is expected to be available later this month via a major streaming platform. The episodes feature drivers Dan Ticktum, Jake Dennis and several other drivers. FEN founder Sam Smith is also part of the series as a specialist pundit.
Also available is Formula E’s ‘Flashback’ series, with a second season of the Formula E retrospective look at races of yesteryear. A range of Formula E personalities from Antonio Felix da Costa, Lucas di Grassi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Mitch Evans, James Barclay, Nicki Shields, Mark Preston and give added insight in to some of the all-electric series’ most dramatic moments. Click HERE to see the trailer.
FEN launched its Youtube channel last month and saw its first upload take-off reaching 80,000 views of the Evo Sessions in Miami.
Mahindra did a cross-promotion with the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ last week. The tournament will be played across 12 stadiums – including Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium – in 11 cities from June 14 to July 13, the best 32 clubs in the world will compete for the title of official FIFA Club World Cup™ champions in the ‘most inclusive tournament in history.’
Mahindra Racing gave away FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ merchandise to fans at Saturday’s autograph session pre-race. Fans can use the exclusive code ‘MAHINDRA10’ to receive a 10% discount on purchasing FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ tickets, which are available HERE.
Faces in the Miami Crowd
Andretti’s organisational mothership TWG Motorsports was out in force at the Miami EPrix as CEO Dan Towriss and President Jill Gregory were in attendance at the team’s home race. Recently announced reserve and development driver Oliver Askew was also on-site for the team as regular reserve Jak Crawford was in action at the opening F2 race of the season in Bahrain.
Several members of the CUPRA KIRO ownership visited the Miami EPrix with Jeremy and Zach Tarica. Head of Forest Road Company, Jaclyn Fershtman, CMO of FRC, David Kaplan & Bennett Rosenthal – owners of Kiro Race Co and co-founders of Ares Management taking in their home event.
Two young up and coming racing talents were spotted at the Miami EPrix on raceday. Colin Queen, who races this season in the U.S Lamborghini Super Trofeo for ANSA Motorsports was on-site, while 16 year-old F4 racer Noah Monteiro also visited the paddock with his father and former F1 driver and World Touring Car star, Tiago Monteiro. Noah recently showed strongly in the opening Spanish F4 series race at Motorland Aragon.
Education, Education, Education
Formula E has launched a new programme with the Public Investment Fund (PIF) aimed at STEM education and sustainability.
The ‘Driving Force presented by PIF’ programme will provide scope for young people – aged eight to 18 – to explore STEM-led motorsport careers, while also absorbingsustainability workings within the all-electric world championship.
“We are collaborating with our partners to accelerate progress, maximize impact, and deliver powerful unified programs,” said Mohammed Al Sayyad, head of corporate brand at PIF. “For the first time, we are bringing together Formula E, Extreme H and E1 to expand the Driving Force program and drive transformative impact by empowering youth who are the innovators of tomorrow.”
Stat Attack
The Stats Centre has been revealed by Formula E and partner Infosys to provide fans with interactive access to data and facts of drivers and teams, their key milestones, and compelling narratives through its Key Stats and Insights platform.
“From dynamic stat cards that adapt to the race timeline to an AI companion that prompts engaging questions, we’re supercharging the Formula E fan experience, making its rich history, and exciting present more accessible and engaging, ultimately raising the bar for digital fan engagement,” said Infosys’ EVP & Global Chief Marketing Officer, Sumit Virmani.
Check out The Stats Centre HERE.
