Winners and losers from Formula E's contentious title decider
What looked like a relatively tame Formula E season finale exploded into life in the final 10 laps thanks to some classic team-order interference and its contact-inducing consequences.
Add in some curt exchanges over the team radio, as the destiny of the championship changed hands briefly in-race, and this made for a fitting send off for an Excel London venue that's provided its fair share of Formula E action.
Here's our pick of winners and losers as the 2025-26 title was decided:
Winner and loser: Porsche
Pascal Wehrlein's second title ensured that he became the only official double Formula E world champion - Jean-Eric Vergne's brace of triumphs were before the absolute moniker of FIA Formula E world champion existed - and he therefore became statistically the most successful driver of the Gen3 era.
Porsche, with its 99X Electric, also cemented its reputation as statistically the best manufacturer of the era too as the drivers' title meant that it secured a sixth title (three drivers', two manufacturers' and a teams' triumph) since the Gen3 car's debut in 2023.
It achieved that result in a slightly different manner to all of those victories before it though, as it felt the need to protect Wehrlein at all costs via a mixture of overt calls to Cupra Kiro and Dan Ticktum and especially Wehrlein's works team-mate, Nico Mueller.
It wasn't a popular way of doing it. Up and down the paddock, the bitching was more akin to an Eastenders episode. But in the East End last weekend Porsche played just about every card it had, and it reaped the rewards.
Those tactics, to be clear, were not against any rules and regulations. It will be, to an extent, next season though when the FIA cracks down on such practices between manufacturers and teams.
That Porsche's actions were looked at very dimly in some corners of the paddock was no surprise. Were its rivals naive? Perhaps. But it's fair to say that as elegant title triumphs go, this was on the more debatable side of the conversation.
Yet, when were winners ever universally popular in a paddock of competitive and hungry individuals, especially those from manufacturers and big independent teams? Probably never.
But the overt deployment of Mueller as arch spoiler really got up Jaguar's collective noses, and that irritation manifested in a retaliation that ultimately acted as an accelerant to the Antonio Felix da Costa and Wehrlein feud, one that has burned white hot ever since the pair irreversibly fell out as team-mates at the 2024 Sao Paulo E-Prix.
It all meant that the antics ramped up to an inelegant degree on Sunday, with multiple incidents and marginal driving by both Wehrlein and da Costa. It almost cost the former the title and it cost both of them penalties they will carry into the Gen4 period.
Through it all though was the fact that Wehrlein won. And it was telling that his aggressive slamming down of his protective cockpit fixture in parc ferme and a primal scream into the claustrophobic Excel hall was a clear message to his detractors, of which there are many in the Formula E paddock.
While it wasn't a pretty way to win, win Wehrlein did, and over the course of the season he has been one of the very top performers and Porsche certainly did have probably the best car in many areas across the grid.
Yet, that unease with some the tactics left an aftertaste. Will that have a legacy? Possibly. Will Porsche and Wehrlein care too much about it as they celebrate another successful season? No.
On the da Costa-Wehrlein rivalry, which now feels like an out-and-out vendetta, Porsche director of motorsport for Formula E, Florian Modlinger would not comment directly, only telling The Race on Sunday: "He [da Costa] was down on energy in attack mode, but still attacking Pascal. This looked like he clearly compromised his own race.
"But everybody needs to decide what he's doing, what the team is doing. We will review this race exactly and in detail afterwards. But it's not the day where we do it. We do it when it's quiet and calm."
Loser and winner: Jaguar
Jaguar savoured its second team title as Evans's fourth position on Sunday ultimately consolidated its points lead, as Porsche notched up its third blank score of the season.
The fact that Jaguar had four such non-scores across the campaign will surely rankle Porsche's ultra-competitive nature because really it had more than one chance of taking a hat-trick of drivers', manufacturers' and teams' titles across the 17-race season.
Jaguar, a deserving teams' title winner, did suffer genuine bad luck in London with Evans's Saturday race compromised by the full course yellow before he signed off from his decade-long career with the Big Cat with a typically tenacious and well-driven Sunday race.
For that, Jaguar is, like Porsche, considered a winner and loser: a winner for its teams' title success; but a loser for the same reasons as Porsche, with the spoiling tactics via da Costa at times just as uneasy.
That said, the tight confines of the Excel track were always going to bring such scenarios to the fore. Add in the genuine loathing of former team-mates and disparate characters of da Costa and Wehrlein, and it is a perfect recipe for what was seen by both last weekend.
There were plenty of neutral teams and drivers too that were subtly and not so subtly getting involved through nothing other than friendship and a kind of nosey inquisitiveness.
Some stated off-the-record that both Porsche and Jaguar could take it but couldn't give it when it came to the spoiling tactics employed. While there is some credence in this both ways, Jaguar proved categorically that after Saturday it wasn't shy in street fighting too after what it felt were bullying tactics from its major rival.
Jaguar's team principal, Ian James, naturally defended his team when questioned about the tactics and the feud between da Costa and Wehrlein, saying: "As you go through any kind of competitive sport through the years, it would be naive to think that there are rivalries in certain areas and I suppose friendships in others.
"Between Pascal and Antonio, it's for them to say the state of their relationship. But from the outside looking in, it doesn't look like there's any love lost between them.
"But at the end of the day, that is what it is. We just need to make sure that out on the track, the driving is fair and respectful. And once again, I can only speak on behalf of my team and my drivers. I think what we saw was exceptional."
Loser: Andretti
It would be unfair to single out Jake Dennis as an overt loser because generally the first Gen3 champion was excellent.
But it can't be disguised that Andretti lost its fight for third place, albeit through the hands of, quite ironically (some may say inevitably), its manufacturer provider Porsche.
Wehrlein's tagging of both Joel Eriksson and then Dennis was the defining factor of the Andretti driver's Sunday race and it was one that Dennis felt ultimately lost him what could have been a second title.
Dennis, who was fast throughout the weekend, ultimately probably lost out because of a poor Sunday qualifying. That was put down to poor rear stability on his Andretti-Porsche and it was a big setback because from 16th position he had to employ a super energy-save strategy.
He was pulling that off superbly up until the point of contact via Wehrlein, and with an energy advantage and part of his second attack mode left Dennis was lined up to deliver.
But the heartache was dealt with pretty quickly as context and peace with it all for father-to-be Dennis was digested, especially in light of the Andretti driver having already won a title (in 2023).
"It definitely softens the blow," said Dennis.
"I didn't think it would, but it does. If that was mine for the first time, I would be really salty. But I'm just already at peace a bit that that's how they win it. And so be it, is what it is. I can just go into the off-season knowing I gave it my absolute best."
Winner: Mahindra
That Mahindra had a quick car in the halls of and perimeter roads around the Excel was never in doubt. That it could switch it all on definitely was after a Saturday in which it left with just six points for Edoardo Mortara's seventh-place finish.
It should have got much more. But several key technical changes overnight allowed it to reactivate the pace of both cars to claim its first ever 1-2 grid lockout and then a double podium in the race to seal third position in the final teams' standings.
From where Mahindra began the Gen3 era - at the back and needing to rebuild - to where it ended it - beaten only by Porsche and Jaguar - is one of the stories and best achievements of the entire ruleset.
That is why the Indian-flagged team celebrated its achievement so viscerally, even if in reality it should have been celebrating its third win of the season as it looked to be in total control of the race with Nyck de Vries and Mortara orchestrating what looked at one stage to be the perfect strategy.
While that didn't quite play out, Mahindra can be justifiably proud of a remarkable turnaround that left its team principal Frederic Bertrand waxing lyrical about the achievement.
"What we have done is a big testament to the spirit of the team to say we are down but never, ever out of it," he told The Race even ahead of last weekend.
"This gives us a lot of confidence and momentum for Gen4 because we have proved that Mahindra can be close to Porsche and Jaguar at the end of a season. There is so much pride in how we did from where we came from."
Loser: Nissan
The outside chance of Oliver Rowland going back-to-back on drivers' titles always felt remote and so it proved as he never really featured at a track where the Nissan has struggled to match any of its direct rivals in the Gen3 Evo era.
A 10th- and ninth-place finish and a pair of fastest laps was slim pickings for Rowland and, with team-mate Norman Nato again barely contributing, it meant Nissan ended the season a lowly sixth in the teams' standings.
A gargantuan 131 points off winner Jaguar tells its own tale at the end of a season in which on several occasions it looked like a squad that was chasing its own tail.
All of that will be addressed in the off-season as Nissan continues to develop its Gen4 challenger. Rowland will play a huge part in that in the late summer months because the team needs a re-energised focal point who can help galvanise a team that often feels to be in a continual state of rebuilding.
Winner: Taylor Barnard
To say Barnard's first victory in Formula E felt like it was coming would be disingenuous because DS Penske frankly has had a horrible season, one in which at no stage did Barnard look like becoming the all-electric world championship's youngest-ever winner.
He left it late in the Gen3 era in which he emerged as an unlikely star, albeit one in which he was heavily invested in by first McLaren and then DS Penske.
Barnard has been quick this season but a mixture of average technical performance from the Stellantis powertrain and some incorrect team calls on race strategy meant it was hands down DS's worst season in its decade-long commitment to Formula E. That it left it with a win though was one of the feel-good stories of the season as the Stellantis brands change again (with Opel incoming) for Gen4.
Barnard's victory was well deserved after his side of the garage played his final attack mode strategy perfectly to vanquish the probably-slightly-quicker Mahindras. For Barnard himself, it answered a question he asked almost ad nauseam.
"Everyone's always asked about the youngest race winner, youngest pole and podium and when is the youngest race winner coming?" he told The Race.
"My answer was always, 'It's coming' so I'm not going to stress about it.
"I thought it would happen in its own time, and to get it at the last-possible moment was very Formula E style.
"It's been super difficult this season, lots of hard work, but those results was tough for all of them, so to give them the best send-off into the off-season was, I think, the best thing possible."
Loser: Lola-Yamaha Abt
There have been plenty of weekends across Lola-Yamaha Abt's two seasons of Formula E existence where you have to cut the plucky underdog a lot of slack. The London E-Prix most definitely wasn't one of them.
In fact, the team's display across the whole London weekend was lamentable. There is no possible way you can dress it up as anything else.
Constant reliability issues hamstrung it to the point where it barely operated and a few laps into Saturday's race the team may as well have gone to the local pub, The Fox, to drown its sorrows as both cars were loaded onto tow trucks and brought sorrowfully back to the pits.
How can the last race of a ruleset produce such dreadful reliability? It was a situation that completely dampened Lucas di Grassi's farewell. He deserved so much better. There were inevitably tears in the garage, and while the sentiment of those was for di Grassi's racing career exit, some were also of frustration and probably embarrassment at what should have been a celebratory finale.
Lola is said to have a fast Gen4 car after a recent test at Estoril. It better hope it has a bigger picture because frankly its London weekend just wasn't good enough.
Remarkably, it is still replacing the Abt engineering power that it stated it was forsaking. That was six months ago. Quite why it is taking so long is only known internally at present. But it's clear someone needs to get a grip of the overall situation immediately.
It has a massive rebuilding job to activate in the months to come if it is to be taken seriously at world-championship level as a consistent and credible entity.
