Photos by Sergio Álvarez and Ester Caballero. For full image gallery please click HERE.
If you felt a sense of déjà vu watching the cars snake through the Circuito del Jarama this weekend, you weren’t alone. For those of us who’ve been pacing the Formula E paddock since the Battersea Park days, the inaugural Madrid E-Prix felt like a bridge between the series’ scrappy street-racing roots and its sophisticated, high-speed future. Moving away from the typical 90-degree city turns to a flowing, permanent 3.9km technical ribbon—the longest in FE history—provided the Gen3 Evo cars the room they’ve been screaming for. It wasn’t just a race; it was a statement that this championship has finally outgrown its “parking lot” reputation.
The narrative of the weekend, however, was dominated by the bombshell dropped by Stellantis just 24 hours before the lights went out. The announcement that Opel will join the grid as a full factory outfit for the Gen4 era in 2026/27, effectively succeeding the ultra-successful DS Automobiles, sent shockwaves through the hospitality suites. While it’s bittersweet to see the DS name—a brand that defined the early Gen2 dominance—prepare its exit, the entry of the “Opel GSE” brand is exactly the shot in the arm the German contingent needs. It’s a strategic pivot that aligns with the Gen4’s massive 600kW power leap, and seeing Jörg Schrott already leading a team of engineers in the pit lane suggests Opel isn’t just coming to participate; they’re coming to reclaim the German pride currently held by Porsche.
On the track, the race was a tactical masterclass that reminded us why track position is no longer the only currency in Formula E. Polesitter Nick Cassidy looked to have the race under control for Citroën, but a catastrophic strategic blunder during the “Pit Boost” window saw him relegated to the midfield. While Cassidy faltered, Jaguar’s António Félix da Costa proved why he is the most dangerous man on the grid when he has momentum. Executing a perfect undercut, the Portuguese driver snatched the lead and spent the final ten laps in a defensive clinic, fending off his own teammate, Mitch Evans, and a surging Pascal Wehrlein.
The closing laps were, quite frankly, heart-in-mouth stuff. A late-race skirmish between Wehrlein and Nyck de Vries left the championship leader with a fluttering rear wing, but the Porsche driver’s resilience to hold onto third was the drive of a champion. Meanwhile, home hero Pepe Martí gave the Spanish crowd plenty to cheer about, leading several laps before the energy-saving phase shuffled him back to ninth. It was a classic Formula E “peloton” race at the start, but as the energy targets tightened, the cream rose to the top, leaving us with a podium covered by less than a second.
With Round 6 in the books, the standings reflect a championship that is starting to fracture into two distinct tiers. Pascal Wehrlein remains the benchmark, his podium in Madrid extending his lead to 83 points. He is the model of consistency, but the Jaguar duo of Evans and Da Costa are now within striking distance, separated by just a single point in third and fourth. For Cassidy and Citroën, Madrid was a wake-up call; after a blistering start to the season, they’ve slipped to fifth in the standings and need a reset before the European leg continues in earnest.
As we pack up the crates and head toward the next double-header, the paddock chatter remains fixed on the “Opel era” looming on the horizon and whether anyone can actually crack the Porsche-Jaguar duopoly. We came to Madrid expecting a spectacle, and Jarama delivered a race that was as technical as it was thrilling. The Gen3 Evo era is hitting its stride, and if the racing remains this tight, the 2026 title won’t be decided until the final corner of the final lap in London.
Stay tuned for Sergio’s exclusive interview with Zane Maloney. Coming up next.
Championship Standings (After Round 6)
| Pos | Driver | Team | Points |
| 1 | Pascal Wehrlein | Porsche Formula E Team | 83 |
| 2 | Edoardo Mortara | Mahindra Racing | 72 |
| 3 | Mitch Evans | Jaguar TCS Racing | 65 |
| 4 | António Félix da Costa | Jaguar TCS Racing | 64 |
| 5 | Nick Cassidy | Citroën Racing | 51 |
More on Opel
The strategic brilliance of Opel’s entry lies in how Stellantis is “re-skinning” a decade of dominance. By taking over the slot vacated by DS Automobiles, Opel isn’t starting from a blank sheet of paper; they are inheriting a goldmine of intellectual property and a championship-winning operational structure. While the Opel GSE branding is new, the backbone of the project remains the high-efficiency powertrain development at Satory. This allows Opel to bypass the painful “learning years” that usually plague new manufacturers, giving them a turn-key solution to challenge the likes of Porsche and Jaguar immediately.
The timing is particularly calculated to exploit the Gen4 technical leap. With power figures skyrocketing to $600\text{kW}$ (roughly 815bhp) and the introduction of permanent all-wheel drive, the Gen4 car is a different beast entirely. Opel is leveraging its specific expertise from the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup—the world’s first electric one-make rally series—to master the torque distribution and traction management required for an AWD platform. In the paddock, the whisper is that Opel’s software for managing the $700\text{kW}$ regenerative braking is already a generation ahead of where DS left off.
Finally, the “German Engineering” factor cannot be understated. By positioning the team as a Rüsselsheim-led project under Jörg Schrott, Stellantis is aiming for a level of Teutonic precision that specifically targets the efficiency benchmarks set by Porsche. It’s a classic pincer movement: they’ve combined the flair and historical data of the French racing heritage with German technical rigor. If their simulations for the Gen4’s active aero and energy density are even half as good as the rumors suggest, Opel won’t just be a “new” entry—they’ll be the team everyone else is chasing by the time we hit the 2026/27 season opener.
iberianmph.com 