The Fortescue Zero company that is a key element of the Jaguar TCS racing team, will run a pair of Jaguar cars in the Gen4 era of Formula E after acquiring a majority stake in the Jay Penske owned team formerly known as Dragon Racing and DS Penske.
Formula E Notebook understands that Penske finally agreed to sell a majority stake in the team at the London E-Prix last month. Penske, the son of legendary racer and team entrant Roger Penske, has owned the team since Formula E’s inception in 2014.
The Fortescue Corporation owns the Fortescue Zero affiliate, which supplies the PitBoost technology to the all-electric series, equipped the whole Gen3 grid with traction batteries and is also the key service provider to the Jaguar TCS Racing team.
Fortescue has a core business as a metal mining company and is one of the world’s largest iron-ore producers. It was founded by Andrew Forrest, who acquired the Allied Mining and Processing company and re-named it Fortescue in 2003. Forrest was reported as having a net worth of A$33.29 billion in 2023’s Australian Financial Review publication, and is consistently noted as one of Australia’s wealthiest people.
Fortescue Zero is the technology and engineering division of Fortescue, and focuses on developing green energy hardware, software, and battery intelligence systems to achieve what it terms as “Real Zero” (the complete elimination of fossil fuels rather than relying on carbon offsets) by 2030.
The loss of the Gen4 battery tender re-focused Fortescue Zero to look for an alternative motorsport programme, and discussion between it and Penske opened in the early part of 2026 but had been a possible project of interest as far back as mid-2024.
According to a key member of the Fortescue executive and leadership team, Chief Executive Officer for Growth and Energy, Agustín Pichot, the entry in to Formula E represents a chance to be “at the cutting edge and on the front foot of innovation.”
“Formula is a great place to push and to have that innovation and the chance to build and try products that then clearly we will use with our own mine sites and our own technology drive that we are pushing. But also obviously we will go around the world to make it commercially viable,” Pichot told FEN.
Also a highly celebrated and decorated former Argentinian rugby player, who competed in four World Cups for the Pumas, even captaining the side briefly in the 2007 finals in France, Pichot is joined on the Fortescue board by Athletics legend and double Olympic gold medal winner Lord Sebastien Coe, who is a Non-Executive Director.
The Fortescue Zero Racing company, which is the entrant business of the Formula E entry, was founded earlier this month in the UK and cites Chief Technology Officer, Travis Hester, as one of its directors.
Hester is a veteran of the automotive industry, having worked for General Motors for a quarter of a century in various roles, including Executive Chief Engineer and Vice President of Advanced Vehicle Development.
Speaking to FEN about the plans, Hester said that Fortescue Zero’s innovation cross-pollinates motorsport with the mining industry.
“Some of our innovations we put into race cars and some we actually put into production automotive cars, particularly on the software side, and some of it we actually put into the mine operations,” he said.
“The similarities between a race vehicle and a mine are remarkably transferable in some areas, and we’ve been taking the knowledge that we have in both software and hardware to take into that mine site and improve the operations on the track.
“We have a pretty major decarbonisation push that we’re hoping to have done by 2030, and that creates a fairly large step change reduction in our mining operation cost.”
The new-look Fortescue Zero Formula E team squad is set to operate out of the same preemies as DS Penske in Witney, UK and use a brace of Jaguar Gen4 cars. This means that there will be six Jaguars on the Formula E grid from this December onwards, six Porsche factory cars should it confirm its original intention to field them under an already acquired licence, four Stellantis cars (two each from Citroen and Opel), four Nissans (two for the factory team and a brace of Andretti entered cars, and two cars each from Lola and Mahindra who will not supply customers.
This would mean a full grid of 24 cars via 12 teams, the constitutional maximum for Formula E and the first time such a grid has been assembled since the 2020-21 season, the championship’s sixth campaign.
Charles out; What about Barnard?
FEN has learned that erstwhile technical leader and deputy team principal, Phil Charles, will not continue with the new-look Fortescue Zero Formula E team. He is believed to have been notified at the London E-Prix last month. Jay Penske will stay at the new-look team in a minority stake-holding capacity.
A Team Principal for the Fortescue Zero entry is believed to already have been decided upon and FEN understands that it is a well-known F1 and Formula E experienced individual.
FEN has also learned that Taylor Barnard should be retained as a driver, although a signature on a fresh deal is not yet formally inked. Talks with several other drivers to replace the already Envision confirmed Maximilian Guenther are ongoing. Dan Ticktum and Joel Eriksson are also known to be drivers of interest for the new venture.
Fortescue Zero are unlikely to announce any drivers until late next month at the earliest but it is targeting a first run out at a Valencia test day on November 11 prior to heading to the official pre-season Jarama test on November 16.
