The 2025-26 Formula E field might be one team smaller than last year's, following the demise of McLaren, but there's no shortage of quality in it: 14 of this year's 20 drivers have at least one win to their names.
It's now a field that boasts nine champions, following Oliver Rowland's success with Nissan last season - but will that combination be the one to beat in the final year of the Gen3 rules cycle?
And just like last year, three new (full-time) faces are joining those seasoned pros, too, though each of the newcomers has varying levels of experience in Formula E machinery.
We gathered a panel of our contributors together to rank the 10 teams based on what their driver pairings alone offer, discounting the quality of the team or machinery.
We then used the Formula E points system to create our worst-to-best ranking:
The panel: Sam Smith, Andrew van de Burgt, Georgia Williams, Josh Suttill, Matt Beer, Jack Cozens
10 Lola-Yamaha Abt
(No change)
Lucas di Grassi/Zane Maloney
6 points
Best ranking: 10th (all)
This was the only position where there was a unanimous verdict: every one of our panellists had this line-up last in their lists.
While there were flashes of speed from the all-new partnership last season, particularly from di Grassi - who Smith felt "showed signs of an Indian summer", career-wise - most of our team felt that Maloney's point-less rookie campaign brought the line-up down.
Beer asked whether "this was too new a project to fairly judge him in, but Maloney seemed low on standout moments" especially compared to Taylor Barnard, who "was raising the bar for Formula E newcomers".
While the Lola-Yamaha-Abt package was on balance the slowest last season, Suttill nevertheless felt it was a "weaker-than-expected rookie season" while Williams said that left a "sizeable question mark over expectations" over 2025-26.
Smith went one further, saying "it’s probably a make or break season" for Maloney.
9 Envision
(Down 1)
Sebastien Buemi/Joel Eriksson
16 points
Best ranking: 8th (GW, JS)
Worst ranking: 9th (SS, AVdB, MB, JC)
With 2015-16 champion Buemi providing a (very well) known quantity for Envision, as he heads into his fourth season with the team, there was one big question hanging over this line-up.
"Has Envision seen something we haven't in signing Joel Eriksson? Let's hope so..." asked Suttill.
Erikkson's behind-the scenes experience - he joins in place of Robin Frijns, having previously served as Jaguar's reserve and having made a one-off appearance for Envision in 2024 - means he "should be reasonably prepared", felt Smith, though a "lack of recent pack-racing experience may ultimately hurt him", and Beer said "Swapping out all the raw pace of Robin Frijns for Eriksson doesn’t look that logical from the outside".
Williams - one of two contributors to rank this line-up eighth rather than ninth - felt Buemi's "aura of calm" and experience of the Gen3 Evo car would also help Eriksson, who also contested a half season for Dragon Racing in 2021.
But there was a note of caution about Buemi, too - with van de Burgt saying of the 14-time race winner (and Abt's Lucas di Grassi) that "while they can both be highly-competitive on their day, I feel their title-winning days are behind them".
8 Cupra Kiro
(Up 3)
Dan Ticktum/Pepe Marti
26 points
Best ranking: 5th (MB)
Worst ranking: 9th (GW, JS)
How to judge incoming Red Bull junior Pepe Marti?
Considering he emerged as a contender for the seat so late on and has no real experience to lean on, it's hard to say - though those were two factors that our panellists felt would count against the Formula 2 race winner.
Williams felt Marti will be "hugely up against it", Smith expected it would take him "half a season to get anywhere near his team-mate", and Suttill said in justifying ranking this line-up ninth that Marti "doesn't have the testing experience [Andretti newcomer] Felipe Drugovich has - nor has he shown as high a performance ceiling in his junior career".
Cozens at least felt Marti would be a "step up" from Ticktum's 2024-25 team-mate David Beckmann and give Formula E's newest race winner more of a challenge - potentially elevating Ticktum to greater peaks.
For Beer, his high ranking of fifth was "entirely a judgement on Ticktum" because "predicting whether a young rookie takes to Formula E or flounders in it is a bit of a lottery".
"I'm so glad Ticktum's having this Formula E success to reward the ability he's always had but so often squandered," he added. "He's finally found his place."
7 Andretti
(Down 4)
Jake Dennis/Felipe Drugovich
44 points
Best ranking: 5th (JS)
Worst ranking: 7th (SS, GW, JC)
On paper, there's plenty to like about this line-up: the 2023 champion, partnered by a driver who probably should've had a Formula 1 shot at some point in the previous three years.
So why the low ranking?
We don't have a complete answer for that - though it's probably a combination of the level of driver higher up on this list, Drugovich's rookie status, and a patchier couple of years for Dennis (by his high standards) since his title success.
"Not many rookies come into Formula E and hit the ground running (ignore Taylor Barnard for a second)," said Williams of Drugovich, before adding: "It usually takes some time for a driver to get used to the complexities of a Formula E car before finding uniformity."
But Smith, one of three contributors to rank this line-up seventh, said the 2022 F2 champion was "the choice that will finally make Andretti a proper two-car team after years of Dennis ruling the roost".
"The shift of observation will likely come as to how Dennis will react should Drugovich start delivering quickly, which the Brazilian is expected to do early doors," he said.
That was a theme for lots of our contributors. "After his starring role as a Tempelhof stand-in, I'm really looking forward to seeing what Felipe Drugovich brings to Andretti, which Jake Dennis has pretty much enjoyed the freedom of until now," said Van de Burgt, while Beer had "a feeling Drugovich might take to FE rather well. But getting anywhere near Dennis has seemed so far beyond most of his team-mates".
Suttill, who placed this line-up highest of any of our contributors in fifth, said he backed Dennis to "get back on form this season". "Drugovich's strong debut suggests he might be able to quickly overcome his inexperience," he added. "His potential is mega."
6 Mahindra
(No change)
Nyck de Vries/Edoardo Mortara
54 points
Best ranking: 4th (JC, JS)
Worst ranking: 8th (MB)
Formula E's most dependable line-up?
"There's good reason why this is the longest-standing team-mate pairing in Formula E," said Suttill, one of two panellists to place De Vries/Mortara fourth in their rankings.
The other, Cozens, called it a "no-frills" line-up that offered the "dependability Mahindra needs as it ponders the bigger question of what commitment it makes to Formula E's future".
Though there's no change in its ranking position (it was joint-sixth with Maserati this time last year) our team felt that De Vries and Mortara - one of only two unchanged line-ups in the field - both outdid expectations last season.
Smith called them the "darkhorse duo" - De Vries having shown "signs of his 2021-22 peaks" when he won the title - and felt they will head into the coming campaign "in-form enough to really upset the acknowledged title predictions", while this was last season's "most evenly matched and consistent" pairing for Williams, who expected the same "and even more" this season.
Beer was also impressed with their 2024-25 performances - with one major caveat. "De Vries and Mortara both impressed me far more than I anticipated in Mahindra's renaissance season, albeit with too many wince-inducing moments from De Vries, whose racecraft doesn’t seem to get any better."
5 Nissan
(No change)
Oliver Rowland/Norman Nato
56 points
Best ranking: 4th (GW, MB)
Worst ranking: 7th (AVdB)
The line-up including the defending champion finds itself firmly in mid-table territory here.
Does Rowland play any part in that? Beer, who ranked Nissan's duo fourth, thought not.
"Rowland carries this high ranking entirely on his shoulders after his brilliantly dominant championship win and the combination of aggression, wisdom, speed and Formula E nous that underpinned it," he said. "Nato has a lot to prove."
But Smith felt Rowland also fell into that 'something to prove' category "after a tepid second half to his otherwise brilliant championship season". Our Formula E correspondent described this as last season's "most imbalanced team and as a result they are probably in an artificially imbalanced position here" as he placed Rowland/Nato fifth.
Suttill, who ranked this line-up sixth, was more succinct: "I'm very surprised 2024-25 was the season that earned Nato his first Formula E renewal, given it was probably his weakest. Rowland was fantastic though so gives the line-up a bit of a boost."
4 Porsche
(Down 3)
Pascal Wehrlein/Nico Mueller
67 points
Best ranking: 2nd (GW)
Worst ranking: 7th (JS, MB)
Of the 10 teams we had to rank, none had a bigger range in positions between highest and lowest placement than Porsche.
For Williams, who ranked Porshe leader Wehrlein and factory team newcomer Mueller highest of all, in second, it was their "mutual unflappable personas, technical insight and knowledge of the Porsche" package that scored so well.
She felt that would allow for a "harmonious and collaborative working environment" - something that Porsche was desperately missing last season when the Wehrlein-da Costa relationship turned fractious.
And at the other end of the scale? Beer had big reservations about Porsche's decision-making when it came to the second seat.
"Wehrlein's one of Formula E's best but other than the convenience of him already having a Porsche contract I don't get the logic of promoting Mueller as da Costa's replacement," he said.
Smith - the only other contributor who had Porsche in the top three - said we shouldn't "be fooled by Mueller's poor Andretti season".
"The mistakes will be ironed out this time around and with his experience of the Porsche 99X Electric he will definitely break his podium duck, if not take a win or two," predicted Smith, who also felt 2024 champion Rowland was "still up there with Cassidy, Rowland and Evans as the best of the best in Formula E".
But Cozens felt that Mueller's "outstanding" 2024 campaign with Abt that earned him his Porsche factory deal that summer was actually the outlier and that his Andretti campaign was "more indicative of his real performance level", even if he felt 15th in the championship was an "unfair reflection of his raw speed".
3 DS Penske
(Up 1)
Maximilian Guenther/Taylor Barnard
85 points
Best ranking: 2nd (MB)
Worst ranking: 5th (GW)
No doubts from any of our panellists about the DS Penske duo's absolute peaks.
And it says a lot about Guenther's and Barnard's potential that, amid the multiple champions and storied race winners, this duo makes our top three.
Beer, who ranked them highest, said of the team's new signing Barnard: "So many converts from traditional single-seater categories to Formula E have flopped spectacularly but it’s underselling Barnard dramatically to say he"s an exception to that rule. He’s been a sensation."
There was plenty of praise for Barnard, a breakout star in his rookie season with McLaren, which he finished fourth overall. Suttill said the 21-year-old is "Formula E's best young driver", Williams called him the "boy wonder", and Smith said Barnard "fears absolutely nothing and no one".
In placing this line-up third, Van de Burgt said: "It’s really only a lack of title-contending experience on Taylor Barnard’s side that DS Penske isn’t in that mix, but his potential is massive and Guenther has shown he can be unbeatable on his day."
And while Beer felt "the fact Guenther did all DS Penske's 2024-25 winning yet ended up four places (if only 14 points) behind win-less team-mate Vergne in the championship says a bit about his (in)consistency", he nevertheless said the seven-time race winner was "ferociously fast".
"Guenther, one of the hardest workers in the paddock, feels like a driver reaching a maturity peak, and that could be a very dangerous prospect for his competitors," added Smith.
2 Jaguar
(No change)
Mitch Evans/Antonio Felix da Costa
122 points
Best ranking: 1st (MB, GW)
Worst ranking: 2nd (SS, AVdB, JS, JC)
It was a close-run thing for top spot, with just eight points separating first and second overall in our rankings.
And while Jaguar does come off second-best, it was one of only two teams to be ranked first - and it says much about Evans and da Costa's quality and standing that they were the only duo ranked no lower than second.
That was despite, in Beer's opinion, this being a line-up that does not have "a great track record for championship bid execution" - da Costa's "COVID-calendar-skewed runaway 2019-20 title" aside.
"But it’s a superbly talented and extremely quick one," added Beer, who gave Jaguar's duo the nod for best line-up.
Williams, the other panellist to put Evans-da Costa top, pointed to their "experience and talent" - there's a combined 270 race starts - making them "an impregnable winning machine as a collective".
Smith said they were only second because da Costa would need "a few races to get properly at one with the Jaguar package", but said both were "right up there as Formula E's best ever all-round drivers".
Suttill said it was "another knock-out line-up for Jaguar, presuming da Costa can adapt to Jaguar quicker than he did to Porsche power", but it was that doubt about the incoming Portuguese that prevented him from placing them at number one.
Still, "you can copy and paste my comments from last year on Jaguar: a line-up that's quite literally too good to win a drivers' championship".
1 Citroen
(Up 5*)
*last season as Maserati MSG
Nick Cassidy/Jean-Eric Vergne
130 points
Best ranking: 1st (SS, AvdB, JS, JC)
Worst ranking: 3rd (GW, MB)
The biggest year-on-year gain for any team compared to last - though perhaps unsurprisingly so for an all-new line-up at a new-look team that may well have very different aspirations.
So how to separate Citroen's Cassidy-Vergne combination from Evans-da Costa?
Van de Burgt summed the challenge up succinctly. "There’s very little to choose between Citroen and Jaguar," he said. "On any scale these are two behemoth partnerships, packed with talent, ability, experience and in all four cases probably something to prove (Vergne's being that he hasn’t won a title in a Gen3 car)."
But Smith felt this was conclusively "the strongest all-round driver squad in terms of experience, winning know-how and making things happen", a sentiment backed up by Cozens - who felt Vergne's star hadn't waned despite three years in "relative obscurity for such a decorated driver".
In placing this line-up third, Beer said "Cassidy simply has to be Formula E champion at some point and Vergne remains one of the grid’s benchmarks", while Williams had them in the same position - calling them her "dark horses" for the season and a duo she felt would "bounce off each other’s energy and determination".
And Suttill argued: "Nick Cassidy is the fastest driver to never win a Formula E title. No scratch that, he's probably the quickest driver in Formula E's Gen3 era.
"Partner him with the quickest remaining driver from Formula E's first season and this is the best line-up in the series."
