Robert Shwartzman’s Stellantis Motorsport deal is the latest in a big name deal from the automotive behemoth, as it sharpens its claws for WEC and Formula E programmes in the next four years at least.
Shwartzman will race for Peugeot in WEC next season, joining current Formula E drivers Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne.
But will not fill a seat in its four car Formula E attack, as both Opel (Mitch Evans and Theo Pourchaire) and Citroen (Jean-Eric Vergne and Nick Cassidy) are signed, sealed and delivered to their cockpits for the 2026-27 campaigns, and probably beyond in most cases.
What Shwartzman’s deal does do however; is it gives Stellantis a youthful option – he’s still only 26 – for a ready-made Formula E replacement should one be needed it in the coming years.
The Russian-Israeli last tested in Formula E for the DS Penske team in the summer of 2024, when he topped the rookie test times at Berlin Tempelhof. Since that time, he has competed in the FIA WEC for AF Corse Ferrari in Hypercar – winning at COTA in September 2024 – and then completed a season of Indycar in 2025 for the now mothballed Prema team, famously taking a sensational pole for that year’s Indianapolis 500.
Shwartzman has been actively looking at a Formula E deal in Gen4 for some time. He attended the Berlin EPrix in May and spent a great deal of time with the Lola Yamaha ABT squad.
Indeed, Formula E Notebook has learned that an agreement was essentially all but in place for Shwartzman to be signed to Lola Yamaha in June, so that he could spearhead the Gen4 testing throughout the summer period.
That plan clearly stalled with Shwartzman and his advisors instead majored on the Stellantis deal. Yet his chances of completing a dual programme in WEC and Formula E next season are not completely dead just yet.
A scenario whereby he still races is just about possible, most likely still with Lola Yamaha. This possibility is believed to still be just about alive, although Lola’s likely strategy to sign one pay driver – potentially alongside recent tester Dan Ticktum – appears to be the only outcome now.
Other options could include the CUPRA Kiro team, with whom Shwartzman also held discussions last year. He was said to be in a pool of drivers that may have replaced David Beckmann last autumn but this was ultimately discounted for various reasons, chiefly that he was still in a kind of limbo because of the Prema Indycar team’s opaque future in the series. But the latest vibe from CUPRA Kiro is that it is looking elsewhere for Pepe Marti’s teammate in Gen4, and that the Stellantis-Porsche clash of power in that dual programme is the final act in any interest.
A berth at the second Porsche team, would it be on the grid, will also now be discounted due to his Stellantis deal, while a drive at Penske is a likely non-starter due to that teams’ uncertain future right now as it enters a potential buy-in from an external party.
That means the most likely scenario is that Shwartzman will concentrate solely on the Peugeot deal, potentially with occasional tastes of Gen4 development testing ahead of a review of his programme in the summer of 2027.
