Porsche group principal Florian Modlinger believes the tight and twisty London E-Prix circuit was intentionally chosen to host the Formulation E season finale with a purpose to “create chaos” within the championship battle.
The 2025-26 marketing campaign ended with a controversial showdown in Britain, as Porsche and Jaguar threw the whole lot they needed to win the drivers’ and groups’ titles.
On Saturday, each Cupra Kiro’s Dan Ticktum and manufacturing facility driver Nico Muller got here to the help of Pascal Wehrlein, with Muller backing up the pack to let Porsche’s principal contender run away on the entrance.
In response, Jaguar deployed related techniques in Sunday’s title decider, with Antonio Felix da Costa going aggressive to carry off Wehrlein and assist Mitch Evans’ slim probabilities of successful the championship.
Issues got here to a head on lap 31 of 35, when Wehrlein got here to blows with one other championship rival, Andretti’s Jake Dennis, leaving each drivers out of the factors. Wehrlein was hit with a three-place grid penalty for inflicting contact with Joel Eriksson, who spun forward of him on the similar time, however was cleared of any wrongdoing for his incident with Dennis.
Whereas Porsche wrapped up a profitable marketing campaign through which it claimed each the drivers’ and producers’ championship, solely shedding out on the groups’ title to Jaguar, Modlinger made his displeasure clear about London’s tough format making a dramatic race when a lot was at stake.
“I mentioned this already earlier than the race weekend. I am not a fan of doing a season finale on such a observe,” he informed Motorsport.com. “In case you would do that race initially of the calendar, we might see completely different racing.
“And this observe is made for a season finale to create chaos. And me, I am not a fan of that, and I’ll change this.”
Florian Modlinger, Director Manufacturing facility Motorsport Formulation E
Photograph by: Porsche
Heading into the weekend, Modlinger had warned that the ultimate two races in London could be chaotic, as Formulation E bade goodbye to the ExCel circuit forward of its transfer to Manufacturers Hatch subsequent yr.
“I’ve to say I’ve one completely satisfied eye and one unhappy eye as a result of as a pure racer, I don’t like chaos,” he mentioned final Friday. “This implies to have a finale on a observe the place you already know that you should have chaos, it’s nonetheless not what I like.
“Due to this fact, I am fairly completely satisfied that we’re going away from right here. However that mentioned, I’ve to say this occasion may be very very particular. It’s wonderful, the followers get indoor and out of doors sections. It’s a part of Formulation E; it’s distinctive, it’s completely different.
“However from the chaos perspective and observe traits, I’m not so unhappy [about London’s departure]. I’m trying ahead to the long run.”
Formulation E returned to London in 2021, with the ExCel area and the encircling public street enabling the championship to race within the British capital once more.
London served because the penultimate race of the season throughout its first two appearances on the calendar, earlier than it was elevated as the ultimate spherical of the marketing campaign in 2023. Since then, the observe has been host to a number of action-packed races, with Wehrlein famously snatching the title from Jaguar duo Evans and Nick Cassidy in 2024.
Nonetheless, the ExCel’s distinctive indoor/out of doors format leaves little room for modifications, making the observe unsuitable for the broader and extra highly effective Gen4 automobiles which are as a result of debut within the 2026-27 season.
Subsequent yr will see Manufacturers Hatch take over from ExCel because the UK spherical of the championship, persevering with Formulation E’s shift in the direction of everlasting tracks in recent times.
Requested if issues could be completely different subsequent yr, when the Tokyo Road Circuit turns into the brand new season finale, Modlinger added: “When you consider the larger automobiles, the Gen 4 automobiles, Tokyo just isn’t removed from that. So there’ll once more be chaos.”
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