Going to Pens?
Several Monaco inspired grid penalties will be taken on Saturday’s 2026 Lianxin Sanya EPrix. DS Penske issued a petition for review regarding Maximilian Guenther’s penalties for his collision Sebastien Buemi and his speeding under Full Course Yellow. These were both rejected after FIA steward hearings at the end of May. Further to that petition, Mahindra also built one for Edoardo Mortara’s lap two shunt with Antonio Felix da Costa.
While Mortara served his penalty in the Monaco race, Guenther will drop three position in Sanya for the FCY offence. Additionally, Guenther’s teammate Taylor Barnard will serve a six place grid drop for 10 grid slots for incidents he was deemed to have triggered with Norman Nato and Jean-Eric Vergne, also in the Sunday race at Monaco.
Pepe Marti will also drop five places following his shunt with Nick Cassidy’s Citroën at Rascasse.
Offset Upset?
The energy offset penalty in Article 36.3 of the Sporting Regulations of the 2025-2026 FIA Formula E World Championship, will not be applied for the Sanya EPrix for a Safety Car start. According to Article 36.3 of the Sporting Regulations there is an energy offset penalty of (+0.5 kWh to the zero reset) applicable for cars starting the race from the pit lane.
If the race is declared to start behind the Safety Car the energy offset penalty to cars starting from the pit lane will not be applied. If the race is started behind the Safety car and according to Article 36.18 of the Sporting Regulations the Race Director decides to end the Safety Car period with a ‘Standing Start’, any car starting the race from the pit lane should take the grid position at the back of the grid in the order they have left the pit lane.
Shanghai Surprise?
Next month’s Shanghai EPrix will feature a subtle but potentially crucial amendment to the race format with the second race of the weekend set to be one lap less than the 2025 equivalent race. The Sunday race at the Chinese Grand Prix venue will be run to 27 laps as opposed to 26 this year.
Zhou-tropolis?
Speaking at a Sanya preview media roundtable earlier this week, Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds, said that Formula E is interested in trying to get former Alfa Romeo/Sauber F1 racer and current Ferrari development driver Zhou Guanyu to Formula E in the future.
“I think today, the one Chinese racing star that would move the needle in terms of really capturing the excitement of the Chinese racing fans would be Zhou,” said Dodds. “And we know him reasonably well. Alberto and my team know his mum quite well, so we’re often talking to him. But at the moment, he’s on his development driver for Ferrari, so I think he probably still harbours aspirations of getting back into a Formula 1 seat.
“But, you never know. If that looks unlikely for him, given the popularity of Chinese EVs and the rise of Chinese manufacturers, we’d love to get a Chinese racing driver into a car.”
Gen4 Performance runs begin
A spate of recent Gen4 testing has taken place in Formula E with all of the registered manufacturers in action over the last few weeks.
Joining Nissan’s Rowland and Bird at Monteblanco at the end of May was Porsche, who had both Nico Mueller and Pascal Wehrlein on hand as they continue to accrue miles on the 975 RSE development car.
At the Almeira circuit in southern Spain, at a similar time, Stellantis ran with regular Citroen drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Nick Cassidy in the car that was liveried up as an Opel car for the Paul Ricard Gen4 unveiling event in April.
Mahindra is yet to complete its first Gen4 test, while Lola continued dyno running and is set to track test again this month.
Jaguar has been out running at the Ales-Cevennes circuit in the south of France with Stoffel Vandoorne and Antonio Felix da Costa behind the wheel. Spark ran at the same track with James Rossiter continuing in his role as official development driver, which has now expanded to sporting advisor at Formula E Operations.
Calendar Clash Headaches?
Formula E has now submitted its 2026-27 calendar, the first of the Gen4 era, to the FIA. The schedule, which is believed to be the first ever to include 20 races or more, is set to kick off at the end of 2026 and run through until July 2027.
FEN understands that new venues are set to be included in the calendar and that there will be a least two date clashes with the FIA World Endurance Championship schedule which was announced last week. This could mean four races missed by any driver that does not have Formula E exclusivity over their two drives. This is likely to severely affect some drivers who were planning to continue racing in both series in 2027.
Major clue revealed for new FE British home?
Formula E potentially racing at Brands Hatch next season appears to be closer than ever after Silverstone boss Stuart Pringle stated at Le Mans last week that the circuit he manages would not be hosting the all-electric world championship anytime soon.
“I don’t think that [FE] will be coming to us this time round,” Pringle told reporters, as Silverstone was announced as a WEC host again next April.
“But as those cars (Gen4) get faster and faster, to me it seems inevitable that they will be on a Grade 1 circuit. And that’s us in the UK. They are not quite at F1 levels of performance, but the next generation, when they upgrade Gen4, I think they will be there or thereabouts.
“Gen5 will be F1 levels of performance and I’m not sure you want to be going round an exhibition centre in cars that have sort of performance!” added Pringle.
The new Formula E calendar will be publicly known on Tuesday, June 23.
Hughsie returns!
Jake Hughes returned to the Formula E paddock for the first time since the London EPrix last July this week, as a Mahindra reserve. The former McLaren and Maserati MSG driver is racing in the European Le Mans Series this season with the Alpine Pro team and recently finished fourth in the LMP2 ProAm category with teammates Enzo Trulli and Michael Jensen. He fills in at Mahindra for an indisposed Kush Maini.
Nissan Playing Nicely
Nissan’s Oliver Rowland told FEN recently that racing collaboration with teammate Norman Nato has developed between the two this season. The pair collided in the Sao Paulo opener but have since raced together more progressively at Berlin and briefly at Monaco.
“It’s never like we go into a race with a plan to help each other, whereas in Berlin, it was like the first time we kind of started together,” said Rowland. “And actually, we didn’t try and script it. We both just did our own thing, went to the front, and then took care of each other.
“I think there were lessons learned from that,” added the reigning champion. “Like, I don’t think it was the right decision to swap us around because we just lost him time and it didn’t really win me much. It wasn’t something that I asked for either. So, I think we reviewed that afterwards, and the lesson was that both cars probably should have been on the podium in that race (Sunday at Berlin).”
Espinos, le grand patron!
Lola Yamaha ABT’s Frederic Espinos is the acting team principal at the British squad this weekend, taking over from Mark Preston. Lola CEO, Mishern Chetty detailed that “due to wider Lola Cars commitments, Mark Preston will not be in attendance at the Sanya EPrix. Deputy Team Principal, Fred Espinos, will take over as acting Team Principal for the 11th round of Season 12 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Mark will resume his trackside duties from Rounds 12 and 13 in Shanghai.”
Mid-season Podcast Lands
The Race has issued a mid-season podcast analysing the teams and drivers as the final seven races get set to run over the next two months at Sanya, Shanghai, Tokyo and London. Matt Beer and FEN founder Sam Smith chose their ‘Winners and Losers’ in the 2025-26 campaign so far. Listen HERE.
Maloney Lonely
Zane Maloney’s home country of Barbados is the only nation represented on the Formula E grid that is not represented at the FIFA World Cup in the U.S/Mexico and Canada. All of the other 10 countries – England, Germany, France, Spain Sweden, New Zealand, Switzerland, Brazil, Netherlands and Portugal – made it through to the world’s biggest sporting spectacle.
