Stellantis is cutting out the middleman with its latest Formula E venture

Stellantis is no stranger to Formula E. Its brands have been a part of the series since the second season, but for the upcoming campaign, the conglomerate is taking a bigger step.

Instead of partnering with an existing team – which it did most recently with Penske Autosport and the Monaco Sports Group, the team which under its current ownership will continue to operate as Citroen Racing next season – Stellantis is going it alone when Opel enters Formula E for the first time.

“Honestly, it is not an easy task to build up an entirely new team, especially in a high motorsport category,” said Opel team principal Jörg Schrott. “And this is not a self-propelled thing. It's much more than just to recruit people. You have to bring the right people together, the people with the right experience, right skills, right mindset, right culture, and also with a willingness at the end also to put all the efforts in for for success, and I'm pleased to say that we could that we could attract people from both from the Formula E paddock as well as from other top level racing categories.

“I'm also pleased about the quality of the people joining the team and about the strong commitment, which you can already feel for the project.

“So this is a good start already in the team. Of course, the goal is that we establish a strong team, a team which is very agile, very flexible, and learn.”

With Techeetach it won two drivers’ and two teams’ championships, and with Virgin Racing, Techeetah, and Penske, only once did it ever finish outside the top five in the championship. Add in the Maserati- and Citroen-backed efforts, and the company’s win total stands at 23. Even though partnering with an existing team has worked well for Stellantis in the past, now it feels that cutting out the middle man, streamlining the approach and having total control is the way to go.

“[It’s a] super important, super important topic for us because if you have a partner in the team, then you have a partner who can have a say in all of the decisions, driver choice, team structure, even at the race strategy,” said Schrott.

“Even the Stellantis group and team recognized that this could sometimes not be the most efficient way, and so when we started, when we took this decision to join Formula E … this was one of the of the main of the main topics that we have to solve. We would like to start as our own team so that we can make our own decisions. We believe in this benefit, reacting, acting, and reacting faster.

“We are pretty sure that we [will] learn very fast and that we can be a strong team pretty soon.”

Opel’s entry comes at the same time as the switch to the GEN4 ruleset, which brings with it Formula E’s most powerful cars and a stronger aerodynamic package. That means as well as having to build a program from nothing, the team has had to work with the wider Stellantis operation to get the new powertrain ready. Testing is ongoing, and Schrott is pleased with what has been accomplished so far.

“We made a lot of good progress over the last months, and in all areas of the program,” he said. “I'm also pleased to say that we are progressing according to our targets, and that we continue to increase our race readiness for the start, for the start of the championship.

“Since the launch of the car at Le Castellet, we have completed 10 full test days. We did that at different race tracks, mainly in the south of Europe under various conditions. The test program was mainly focused, especially at the beginning, on reliability, of course, performance, drivability, tire handling, and aerodynamics.

“The GEN4 car represents a major step forward in terms of technology, so it's pretty clear that when you develop a new car, especially one that is as complex as a GEN4 car, you are facing challenges, and you have to tackle those challenges, you have to solve those challenges, and this is what we do.

“This is a pretty normal process, and so this is exactly why we are following a very dedicated development process, and also why a specific test program exists. The feedback from our drivers – when I'm talking about the drivers, not only the Opel drivers, the whole lineup of the Stellantis teams – is really encouraging.”

Already Stellatis apparently has the basics covered, meaning attention can already turn to performance ahead of the teams getting together for the official group tests in November.

“Our GEN4 package already demonstrates a very solid reliability baseline, and this is very important, especially at the beginning of a test program,” said Schrott. “So we were able to really use every single test day, every single test hour, because we’re not standing still, not working, sitting in the pits. We did a lot of mileage, and we could run our endurance program very smoothly.

“And this is a very good starting point, and brings us in a good position in terms of fundamental reliability issues. Every test day allowed us to understand the car better in its own complexity so we learned and we see where we have the opportunities to develop further on the performance. Also we see very clearly where the performance gains are for the rest of the test program.”

The team’s driver line-up will comprise perennial title contender Mitch Evans, fresh from a decade-long stint at Jaguar, and newbie Theo Pourchaire who arrives at the team with an impressive resume in other open-wheel categories. The combination of youth and experience is one that Schrott calls a “dream team”.

“I made clear from the very beginning that we were looking for a combination of proven Formula E experience, proven Formula E speed, proven Formula E race intelligence, and in combination with the young, exciting talent,” he said.

That young, exciting talent is, according to Schrott, “a perfect choice”.

“This is an elite young talent with championship pedigree,” he said. “Theo delivered in all the feeder monoposto feeder series up to Formula 1, even in strong competition to the other top tier young talents in those categories.

“We have known Theo for a while because he is part of the Stellantis Young Talent Program, and we know that he has the right speed. He is also able to deliver under championship pressure. He has a high race intelligence, low error rate, and also the work style with the technicians, with the engineers. I was often with him after the test sessions in the debrief. He's very structured, very clear, very focused. So actually, has all the skills to be able to perform from the very beginning in Formula E.

Evans was announced after last season wrapped in mid-August, and Schrott revealed that despite Opel being among Formula E’s newest teams and pretty much a start-up operation, it had caught the attention of others looking for a drive. But Evans was the man he wanted, and the man he got.

“Of course, it's one of the most important decisions you have to take, that you have the right driver line-up,” he said. “And we made this decision already a few months ago. Even so, in between, really very very good drivers approached the team, which also shows the interest in our project, but we are super confident that we have the right drivers' choice.”

It’s been a solid start to life in Formula E, and it has a driver pairing that brings expectations on its own, but Schrott knows it won’t be an easy task. The short-term goals are to get established, but there are longer-term aims also in mind, too.

“We are ambitious, but we have a lot of respect,” he insisted. “We are fully aware that Formula E is a highly competitive championship, and we know that there are a lot of strong competitors in. The goal is to form a strong team which is learning quickly, and getting competitive as soon as possible and get the respect in the paddock.

“In the first season, we would like to be visible, and you are not visible if you are running just on the 10th place.

“We signed for four years, and our goal is not only to prepare for the start of the first season. We are building a Formula E program for the future.”