The expected confirmation of Maximilian Guenther at Paysafe Envision Racing came this morning, some eight weeks after the German driver put pen to paper with the Chinese owned, British based team.
Guenther is expected to be partnered by Zak O’Sullivan at the team with confirmation of the young British ace’s signining due shortly. Envision will once run Jaguar cars next season and indeed throughout the Gen4 period, a deal that was confirmed in July.
For 28 year-old Guenther his agreement with Envision is a multi-year deal and it is a good one. He knows he will have a strong team behind him, a progressive engineering squad and hardware that will be at the very least a frontrunner.
Guenther has already tested the Jaguar on at least two occasions. Once at Estoril last month , just before the final London E-Prix races and then again last week when he shared the Jaguar development car cockpit with Antonio Felix da Costa at Guadix in Spain.
Why Envision went with Guenther
Envision weighed up several possibilities in its quest for a wholesale change and refreshment of its drivers for the Gen4 era.
Paysafe Envision Racing team boss, Sylvain Fillipi, and CEO and Chairman, Franz Jung, pinpointed an established Formula E driver and a rookie that it knew. The latter was clearly O’Sullivan who has tested for the team on several occasions. The former was relatively open until July, with Guenther appealing to the team for his multi-manufacturer experience (with BMW, Nissan and Stellantis) and his track record of seven E-Prix wins and a high average of points collation since he made his debut for Dragon back in 2018.
But around the same time of Guenther’s signing Envision was also in discussions, after an approach on their side, with then reigning champion Oliver Rowland. FEN understands that this was a serious and real offer that was considered by the Rowland camp seriously as it was going through a sticky patch relationship wise with Nissan.
For Envision, Guenther’s signature was decided upon in early July after extensive meetings in Monaco, Berlin and Sanya. The terms are not known but it is assumed that this is a two year agreement with a potential option for a third.
Envision have got a proven and established race winner and one who is known to be one of the best early adaptors of many new traction control innovations that will be used in Formula E for the Gen4 period.
Guenther is very highly rated via the teams that he works with and is very capable of winning races for Envision in 2027. With O’Sullivan as his likely teammate, he will also have a chance in the first half of the season to exert his experience and authority when it comes to leading the team with its new hardware.
Why Guenther went with Envision
Since the start of 2026 until July, Guenther was exploring several options on where his Formula E future might reside.
He had an option available for the Penske team for Season 13 but as no tangible news of the team’s plans was forthcoming as the summer wore on, Guenther decided to go for stability and a guaranteed driver with Envision rather than miss out altogether, which may have been a possibility.
That was because, even now, the Penske teams’ future is not completely secured, although a sale to a third party is expected to be confirmed later this month. That though could mean a second Jaguar customer team, and from Guenther’s viewpoint – not that he knew it back in July – he could have been with a new-look team that was up against the clos keen to make the first test at Jarama in November.
Instead, he is in the first at the checkout customer Jaguar team and already has some good experience of the Gen4 development car. He is also embedded in a team quickly, as Envision have been allocated several test days already.
Additionally, Envision is a team that is expanding its horizons with an extended factory in Silverstone and a new Dynisma simulator, similar to the one used by Nissan for the last 12 months or so.
Guenther had a few options for the season to come but Envision appeared to be far the strongest on the table.
