Barnard becomes Formula E's youngest winner with London victory

It was always going to be a case of when, not if, Taylor Barnard would win in Formula E.

After scoring his first point on only his second outing two seasons ago deputizing for the injured Sam Bird at McLaren, he earned a race seat with the team for the following campaign and immediately took a podium in the first round of 2024-25.

Four more followed, including back-to-back ones in Jeddah, but after the papaya team's exit from the series and a move to DS Penske for Barnard, the high expectations weren't getting realized.

Jay Penske's team has been a somewhat regular podium finisher in the GEN3 era and won races in two of the three season prior to this one, but until Sunday, the rostrum had been elusive.

But while all the attention was on the title battle, which turned messy, and Mahindra’s dominant display from both of its cars out in front, Barnard snuck into podium contention. Then, with a late Attack Mode – going for it on lap 30 of 35 – he pounced. He picked off Edoardo Mortara at the final turn on lap 32, then repeated the move the following go round on Nyck de Vries.

“They were definitely all-or-nothing moves,” Barnard said. “I did it in the last corner both times in Attack Mode so I think it was just opportunistic and a tactical FE move.

“That was the shakiest last lap I think I’m ever going to have in my career. After such a tough season, the team has done so much hard work. We’ve been working in the simulator tirelessly all year. It’s never really gone our way but today I think the whole team deserves a break and honestly thanks to all of them the guys have done absolutely amazingly today.”

Barnard is already Formula E’s youngest points scorer and podium finisher, but now he can add youngest winner to that list. At 22 years and 76 days, his only hope for checking that box was a victory on Sunday, with him being 22 years and 200 days old when the next season starts on December 18 – coincidentally the exact same age his DS Penske teammate Maximilian Guenther was when he set the previous record by winning the 2020 Santiago ePrix for Andretti-BMW.

“That’s the first time I’ve cried for a long time,” Barnard said. “The youngest race winner feels amazing. To do it in front of the home crowd feels unbelievable. I’ve got my whole family here as well, I’m speechless right now, I can’t believe it.”

Well-known in the Formula E paddock as a non-drinker, Barnard admitted that his clean-living ways might have to take a backseat now he’s a Formula E race winner.

“I made a promise to the team that I wouldn’t do it until I won but I might have to let that go tonight.”