Photo: Porsche AG
Porsche will start Formula E’s GEN4 era with the same two drivers who ended GEN3 for it: Pascal Wehrlein and Nico Müller. The championship confirmed the line-up on October 19, two months before the new Porsche 975 RSE makes its race debut under the lights in Jeddah.
Keeping the reigning champion isn’t news. Wehrlein took his second Drivers’ title in August, which puts him level with Jean-Éric Vergne as the only two-time champions in the series’ history. Keeping Müller is a more interesting decision. He finished ninth in the standings, and his points total was the gap between Porsche winning one trophy and winning two.
Porsche kept him anyway. Ninth place makes that look like loyalty. The testing log makes it look like a plan.
The trophy Porsche didn’t win
Formula E hands out three titles, and Porsche’s 2025/26 season shows how differently they reward a team. The final standings show it clearly. The Manufacturers’ Championship, which counts Porsche-powered customer cars as well, was settled in Tokyo with a round to spare. Porsche finished on 498 points to Jaguar’s 400. Wehrlein then won the Drivers’ title at the London finale with 169 points, five ahead of Andretti’s Jake Dennis, who also drives a Porsche-powered car.
The Teams’ Championship went to Jaguar TCS Racing, 288 points to 271. That title only counts the two works cars, so it’s where a weak second seat shows up. Wehrlein scored 62 percent of Porsche’s points. Müller added 102. Mitch Evans scored 160 for Jaguar, which leaves 128 for his teammate. That’s a 26-point difference between the two second drivers, in a title Porsche lost by 17.
Neither Porsche driver scored in London. Wehrlein started third and finished 14th. Müller started fourth and finished 12th. Wehrlein could afford a quiet day with the title on the line. The team championship couldn’t. (We covered that odd title-winning finale here.)
Müller’s case: Berlin and the miles
Ninth place undersells Müller’s season. 2025/26 was his first year in the factory team after racing for Andretti, which runs Porsche customer cars. He finished second in Miami. Then in Berlin on May 2, Porsche’s home race, he started sixth and won by almost five seconds. It was his first Formula E win, on his 69th start.
How he won matters for next season. Müller didn’t win Berlin by being quickest over one lap. He saved more energy than the cars around him after his Pit Boost stop, was the first of the leaders to use his Attack Mode, and drove away. That skill should matter more with GEN4, because how a driver manages energy has a bigger effect on the result.
The stronger reason is development work. Porsche says the GEN4 car first ran in November 2025. By early April it had covered 1,155 test miles at Monteblanco and Almería, with Wehrlein and Müller sharing the driving. Müller has also been on the simulator programme from the beginning. Porsche has said its hardware development runs until October, the FIA homologates the specification this autumn, and after that the work is mostly software. Any driver Porsche signed now would be learning the car just as its hardware is fixed for the season.
What’s new in the car
The 975 RSE is named for Porsche Motorsport’s 75th anniversary. It replaces the 99X Electric, which retired as Porsche’s most successful race car. The headline numbers come from the GEN4 rules: 450kW in race mode, 600kW in Attack Mode, permanent all-wheel drive, and 0–100kph in about 1.8 seconds. The changes that will affect the drivers most are these:
- Downforce. Porsche says the car has up to 150 percent more than GEN3 Evo. There are two aero packages, a low-downforce one for races and a high-downforce one for qualifying, so the car will behave differently on Saturday afternoon than it did that morning.
- Braking. The car can regenerate up to 700kW, and up to 350kW of regenerative braking can come through both axles. Porsche says 40–50 percent of a race’s energy comes from braking. Porsche’s own brake-by-wire system, new for GEN4, decides how much friction braking to add. Drivers notice brake feel quickly, and they don’t like it when it changes. (Our GEN4 regen explainer goes into the 700kW figure.)
- All-wheel drive all the time. GEN3 Evo used front-axle drive only in certain phases. GEN4 drives all four wheels permanently, which changes corner exit and how much the driver can lean on the tyres. We looked at why that matters more than the power figure.
- What teams can develop. The 51.25kWh battery is a standard part that teams can’t develop. Porsche’s own parts include the inverter, motor, gearbox, and differential, plus a new DC/DC converter and control units for the hydraulic differentials.
Teams can only gain an edge in the parts they’re allowed to develop, and the software that runs them. Two drivers who know how the car felt in its first laps and how it feels after homologation can tell the engineers what’s actually improving. A new driver would have no baseline to compare against.
Why it’s still a risk
Continuity cuts both ways in a rule change: the drivers who know the new car best also know the old one best. GEN3 Evo rewarded certain driving styles, and GEN4 brings more grip, more regenerative braking, and more power. Wehrlein, a former DTM champion and Formula 1 driver, starts his seventh season with Porsche. As a two-time champion, he isn’t the question. Müller’s position is less settled. Porsche has kept a driver who won a race and helped develop the car. Now it needs him to score points every weekend, because that’s what the Teams’ title rewards.
The calendar won’t make that easier. The 2026/27 season has a record 21 races, and every round from Monaco onward is a double-header, through to the Tokyo finale on July 24–25, 2027. A season with that many races favours the team whose second car scores most weekends.
What to watch in Jeddah
GEN4 starts with a night double-header at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on December 18 and 19. Watch the gap between the two Porsches more than who’s on pole. If Müller qualifies within a couple of tenths of Wehrlein in the high-downforce package and scores in both races, Porsche’s choice will look sensible early. If the 975 RSE is quick but only Wehrlein is scoring, it’ll look like 2025/26 all over again, just in a faster car.
Watch the Porsche-powered customer cars too. Dennis finished five points short of the title last season in a customer car. If that car is close to the works car again in GEN4, Porsche could keep winning the Manufacturers’ title while the Teams’ title stays out of reach.
Right call, or should Porsche have used the GEN4 reset to change its second driver? What does Müller need to show in Jeddah to convince you? Tell us in the comments.
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