Gracias Jarama!
The first ever Madrid EPrix was a huge success with a sell-out crowd of 30,000 across the weekend being quoted by Formula E Operations, the promoters of the all-electric world championship. The event was attended by the King of Spain, Felipe VI, who toured the fan zone and Porsche garage before heading to the grid. Spanish royalty has a long history of attending motorsport events, with the King’s father Juan Carlos Alfonso Víctor María de Borbón y Borbón-Dos Sicilias, often attending Spanish Grand Prixs down the years.
Other well-known faces at the race included current Real Madrid footballers Thibault Courtois, Dani’s Carvajal and Ceballos and old hero Roberto Carlos. Additionally, ex Grand Prix winners Juan Pablo Montoya and Rubens Barrichello were on site with their respective sons Sebastien and Fernando Barrichello, who also race themselves. Also seen in the paddock was FIA WEC class winner Sarah Bovy, who was doing some media work for Formula E Operations.
Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds told FEN that the success of the event has prompted discussions on how Circuito del Jarama can enhance some of its facilities to accommodate more hospitality infrastructure and also potentially future pits facilities. Formula E is expected to come back to Jarama in the summer of 2027.
“It came up in our FETAMA meeting actually which is this, if this is going to be a long term home, what’s possible?” said Dodds.
“I suspect RACE (Royal Automobile Club de Espana) won’t want to literally tear up all the garages and rebuild them at a huge expense but there’s things that can be done to probably make them configure slightly better for us. So yes, conversations happening but I thought the circuit owners did a brilliant job yesterday as well.”
Andretti team principal Roger Griffiths said that the Jarama track was “a real driver’s track” and it reminded him of “Watkins Glen, when I walked around it.
“I was like, these are the old school tracks where it really showed the difference between the calibre of the drivers. It’s great to see the elevation changes,” added Griffiths.
CUPRA Kiro’s Pepe Marti told FEN that he was very aware of the crowd’s support during his eventful race, saying that when he went through Turn 4 he could “hear and see people standing up and shouting.
“It was unbelievable. It was probably the best part of the race, in my view, and honestly, to lead my first race here in Madrid as a Spanish driver in a Spanish team (sic), on a Spanish track, with His Majesty the King coming as well, has been a fantastic experience,” added Marti.
Madrid EPrix Debrief
FEN understands that the initially suspected front powertrain issue that contributed to Oliver Rowland’s penalty for overspeeding was in fact a specific isolated problem in the rear powertrain cluster. The Nissan team concluded the investigation on Sunday evening ahead of rectifying it ahead of Victor Martins driving in the rookie sessions on Sunday.
Felipe Drugovich’s ‘hail mary’ early attack mode deployment in Saturday’s race was born of a desire to make up early track position and the Brazilian didn’t disappoint by surging to the very front of the pack, the rapidity of which surprised the whole grid and even his own boss Roger Griffiths.
“We were surprised at the pace he went through the field,” confirmed Griffiths.
“I think, honestly, and even he admits it, that he probably went through the field too quickly, and he consumed on energy. Then he said, ‘yeah, I got to the front with, like, still over a minute of attack mode left and went oops, now what do I do now?’ Maybe he should have paced himself a bit more.”
Pepe Marti caused some consternation with his pit entry when the CUPRA Kiro Porsche driver appeared to back up Jake Dennis and Nick Cassidy significantly, with the Citroen driver particularly aggrieved and critical of the Spaniard.
When FEN asked CUPRA Kiro team principal Russell O’Hagan if there was an issue with Marti at that stage, he said: “No, not that I’m aware of but maybe he didn’t attack it as much as the other guys, but nothing that came up (in the debrief).”
The cool temperatures at Jarama last Saturday meant that the Hankook degradation was much less than feared after the 2024 test saw the rubber significantly hammered on the fast and flowing 2.39-mile track. Still, drivers had to manage more than usual wear due to the nature of the former Spanish Grand Prix venue.
“I’m not a big fan of tyre deg in general, and we had quite a bit here in Jarama, but in the end it’s something that everyone needs to manage,” Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara told FEN.
“The racetrack itself was pretty cool, a lot of high-speed corners, and a lot of action during the race. So, in the end, I think that it was great for everyone. For us drivers, when we have these kind of peloton races with a lot of action, it’s not always easy. It’s very easy to have any contacts, it’s always easy to have mistakes, but I guess that it’s part of Formula E, and we need to deal with it.”
Around the Paddock
Mitch Evans’ manager Mattieu Michel made a rare visit to the Formula E paddock at Jarama as his client starts to form his Gen4 plans and a possible life outside of Jaguar. Evans is known to be talking to several teams who have shown significant interest in him for the new rules set which will start at the end of the present calendar year.
One team that he is talking to is the new Opel entity. Its team principal Jörg Schrott told FEN last Friday that “we were really delighted about the interest in the project from so many international top drivers.”
The Race reported last Saturday that Mitch Evans, Nyck de Vries, Theo Pourchaire, Maximilian Guenther and Taylor Barnard are drivers of interest for Opel already. FEN understands that Opel was targeting Jake Dennis until discussions stalled at the end of 2025, which preceded the 2023 champion signing a new Andretti deal until what is believed to be until the end of 2028.
Opel sets out stall
Opel will use a combination of Stellantis Motorsport and Opel engineering and operational staff for its new team which is starting to form already and attend some Gen4 testing. Team principal Joerg Schrott told Formula E Notebook in Jarama last weekend that “the good thing is that we can draw on a very good, very experienced, and highly skilled team from Stellantis. This is really what I’m thinking. Those guys do know what they have to do because they are for a very long time in Formula E and they have impressive track records already.
“This team is mainly driven the development of the new Gen4 car, also testing and the development,” added Schrott. “There are already some Opel team members involved, that are integrated. What we are working on is, beside a team structure, we are working also to build an Opel Formula E core team. This team is planned to manage the racing operations in the future.”
Revealed: Secret Gen4 Jarama Test
FEN has discovered that the independent Gen4 development car tested at Jarama in May 2025 and used the track configuration without the temporary pit straight chicane. James Rossiter conducted the test and is said to have registered 322kph before the braking zone at Turn 1. Jarama is expected to host a race in July 2027 possibly without the chicane being used.
Viva Agosti! 50 Years in the Biz!
Aurora camera operative Gian Piero Agosti celebrated a remarkable milestone at Jarama last weekend as it was 50 years that he first attended a race at Circuito del Jarama, as an enthusiastic junior. At the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix, a race won by James Hunt in a McLaren M23D, Agosti, first worked the camera. Since that time, he has worked on thousands of events from F1 to Formula E and GT races.
Georgia Williams contributed to this report
