Youthful experience: Why Envision are going in with an all-new line-up for the Gen4 era
Envision Racing has never opted for an all-new line-up going into a Formula E season.
So when team principal Sylvain Filippi announced the departure of not just Sébastien Buemi, but his rookie teammate Joel Eriksson, it definitely sparked plenty of surprise among the Formula E faithful, with many questioning why the Swedish driver was ousted by the team in green.
“This has been a difficult decision, particularly given the contribution both Seb and Joel have made to our team,” Filippi mentioned, speaking about parting ways with both drivers ahead of Formula E’s finale in London.
He wasn’t wrong either. Buemi had accumulated 97 points all season, comfortably beating his tally from the previous two campaigns. The Swiss driver had scored a podium at Jeddah earlier this season, and served as a vital cog in the team's return to the top step of the podium in a wet Monaco event in 2025.
Eriksson, on the other hand, delivered as a super sub for Buemi in Berlin back in 2024, bringing home two points in the one-off weekend. Having served on the sidelines for the Envision outfit for several years, a full-time seat for Season 12 was on the cards.
Despite not having much racing under his belt, Eriksson’s adaptability to the series certainly stood out. If his seventh-place finish in an attritional São Paulo E-Prix stood out, his pair of wet drives in Miami and Shanghai were the best moments of his season, when he finished fourth and third, respectively.
Often, those drives highlighted what Eriksson was capable of, even if Formula E’s aggressive racing wasn’t his natural driving style. A haul of 55 points across a season certainly serves as proof of a budding talent, considering Eriksson’s first full season in the series and his sparse experience in the championship back in 2021 for Dragon Racing.
While Buemi returns to the team in an advisory and developmental role, Eriksson is left to search for a seat elsewhere on the grid, in a race against time.
But as difficult as it proved to be, Filippi mentioned the team is “entering an important period of development” in the 21-round Season 13 for the coming year.
What led to Buemi’s undoing at Envision
Long before Envision revealed their driver decisions, Buemi’s future had remained under intense scrutiny.
Formula E’s clashes with the World Endurance Championship have been a common affair in the Gen3 era, with drivers missing Berlin events in 2024 and 2025 in order to fulfil their endurance racing commitments.
Buemi remained one of those drivers in 2024, with Envision forced to replace both the Swissman and then teammate Robin Frijns for the pair of races with Eriksson and rookie Paul Aron.
It’s never an ideal situation for a team to replace their driver mid-season, even if for a single weekend. Just as Formula E revealed their 2027 calendar in June, Envision and Buemi had to think ahead.
Elsewhere, Toyota Gazoo Racing, Buemi’s long-time employers in the WEC, wanted to lock down his services for 2027. He had opted to miss the 6 Hours of São Paulo in the endurance event to compete in the Berlin E-Prix weekend for Envision, with Toyota relying on two drivers, Ryo Hirakawa and Brendon Hartley, to compete in the event.
Ultimately, neither side wanted to give way in this discussion. Buemi is a key figure in Toyota’s camp, having led them to four titles in the top class of the championship, and has formed a cornerstone of the team’s success.
But at the same time, Buemi was leading Envision’s Formula E charge, amid Nick Cassidy’s departure ahead of Season 10. With Robin Frijns once again finding his feet at the team in green, the Swissman led the team through two years of transition. He then shouldered the responsibility of the de facto team leader as Eriksson bedded into Formula E this season.
Buemi was in the team’s plans to drive in the Gen4 era, having tested the Jaguar Gen4 prototype at Almeira in January earlier this year.
But while he held a multi-year contract with Envision stretching into the Gen4 era, the calendars for both Formula E and WEC spelt doom. Despite the Monaco E-Prix shifting to a slot between 1-2 May 2027, brought forward by two weeks to avoid a clash with the WEC, it wasn’t enough to aid the team in green in maintaining Buemi as a driver for the Gen4 era.
Formula E’s Shanghai double-header also clashes with WEC’s 6 Hours of São Paulo, another critical factor aiding this decision.
Ultimately, going into a largely developmental period, Envision wanted to avoid the days of the Gen3 era, when it had drivers focus on dual campaigns in the WEC.
While such an arrangement brings its benefits, Envision will be looking towards their drivers and team throwing full focus onto the Gen4 project. This new era of Formula E will still be in its infancy, allowing teams and drivers plenty of opportunity to evolve and fine-tune their cars as the season goes on.
With Formula E also bringing in new race formats such as its shorter Unleashed race on double-headers, teams and drivers will be eagerly learning to maximise this format to the fullest and stand to benefit as the season flows on.
The team in green wanted two drivers free from any other commitments across championships, aligning with Filippi’s view of an important period of development for the team. A support and developmental role provides Buemi the flexibility to race in the WEC and be a part of the team’s story through the Gen4 era.
Günther reps green: Why he opted for Envision
It’s never an easy ask to replace a veteran driver of Buemi’s stature. But as teams have witnessed and learnt in the past, the best way to replace an experienced driver is by bringing another experienced figure into the seat.
While the likes of Mitch Evans or Jean-Éric Vergne may have been high up on Envision’s agenda, both drivers already had locked-in deals within the Stellantis camp.
Another driver high up in their ranks was Oliver Rowland, the reigning champion, potentially being tempted into an offer to rep the green overalls for the Gen4 era.
But it's never easy to tempt a driver who just won a world championship to leave the very team that brought about his success. While Rowland continued to commit to Nissan’s project, Envision’s camp continued their search for a driver to fill their seats for the Gen4 era, all while looking to iron out Buemi’s shuttling commitments between championships.
Then came the Sanya E-Prix weekend in June. At a time when teams had begun firming their Gen4 plans and scouting drivers to be signed, Günther’s Penske outfit remained uncertain about the future.
The team’s biggest concerns were about finding a powertrain supplier, with DS Automobiles leaving and Stellantis not supplying powertrains any further. For the German driver, it was an opportunity to look elsewhere on the grid and avoid the risk of falling behind in an utterly competitive race to be in the Gen4 grid in 2027.
Naturally, Günther and Envision found an opportunity for each other to benefit in the Gen4 era. The German is a proven race winner in the championship, an experienced driver who has succeeded in regulation changes during the Gen3 era.
Additionally, Günther does not have any prior commitments across championships, having competed in Formula E ever since his switch from BWT Arden back in his Formula 2 days.
Envision also provided an aspect several drivers sought after: Stability. In an utterly competitive driver market, this element came as the need of the hour.
It is believed the team in green were pleased by Günther’s adaptability to regulations, and his speed over the course of the Gen3 era. A driver with four pole positions and seven wins in his Formula E career, he is capable of finding the pace Envision have been searching for since their championship-winning year in Season 9.
“Max has proven how capable he is at delivering qualifying laps when it matters, as well as podium finishes and race wins,” Filippi said on Günther’s signing, finally announced in mid-September.
It’s no surprise, though. Even in his toughest of campaigns, Günther made it to the final in Jeddah’s Round 4, only losing out to Mahindra’s Edoardo Mortara. He also made it to the semi-final in Monaco’s Round 9, qualifying in the top three for the race.
Filippi’s statement, though, wasn’t just based on a single difficult campaign; Günther has converted pole position into victory twice in Season 10, at Jeddah and Shanghai, and his near clean-sweep in Jakarta back in 2023 is still fresh in the memories.
“Season 13 is going to be an important year for all teams, learning the GEN4 car as well as a new sporting format, which is going to put an even bigger focus on outright pace and speed,” Filippi expressed, on the utmost importance of nailing the regulations.
Ultimately, Günther fit these requirements, easing talks and eventually putting him at the front of a three-horse race featuring the incumbent duo of Buemi and Eriksson. But there was a twist in the tale, in typical Formula E fashion…..
The Zak O’Sullivan story: An encore for Envision
Zak O’Sullivan has been around the Envision camp for longer than most typical rookies. It was in Season 11 when the team in green brought him onto their roster, albeit for the Berlin Rookie Test.
The British driver had come off a difficult end to a budding career on the Formula One ladder. A GB3 champion, Ginetta Juniors and British F4 runner-up in his own right, he quickly emerged as a talent to look out for in the future.
This eventually materialised into two seasons in Formula 3, with O’Sullivan finishing a distant second in the standings, behind champion Gabriel Bortoleto.
His F2 campaign left many pondering what could have been. Despite scoring two victories as a Williams-backed driver, O’Sullivan left the championship after F2’s Monza round in 2024, citing a lack of funding as the reason.
Ultimately, he moved to Super Formula in 2025, a step usually taken by drivers looking at the closest alternative to Formula One in terms of pace. But the opportunity to drive for Envision in the Berlin Rookie Test opened up another crucial pathway for him to potentially follow in the future.
Envision rewarded the 21-year-old with more opportunities to showcase his learnings, with O’Sullivan finishing top of the standings in FP0 at Miami earlier in 2026. It was an impressive performance, proof of what he was capable of once he had bedded into a particular setup.
Sixth in the Madrid Rookie Test only provided further evidence of this and opened up the road for a potential Formula E seat in the future. With Formula E’s Gen4 era, it also presented an opportunity for Envision to hand out a seat to a budding talent.
The new Gen4 cars have 450 kW (approx 603 hp) in race trim, with 600 kW in attack mode (approx 800 hp), bringing them closer to the F2 and Super Formula cars O’Sullivan has raced in his career.
With more aerodynamic elements coming in, Formula E is also set to be racier for the Gen4 era, catering more to the needs of young rookies coming up the F1 ladder.
This fits into O’Sullivan and his chances of excelling in the all-electric championship, and he isn’t the only rookie joining the championship.
Opel’s upcoming Formula E entry features Théo Pourchaire, while the likes of Victor Martins, Richard Verschoor, Mick Schumacher and Robert Shwartzman have all reportedly been in touch for various seats on the Formula E grid for 2027.
O’Sullivan was also part of the Jaguar Gen4 test at Estoril early in August, signalling hopes of a potential Formula E chance on the horizon. Eriksson, however, hadn’t tested Gen4 machinery in the lead-up to the London E-Prix weekend, where he was announced to be departing the team - perhaps clearing up the debate on who would take the second Envision seat.
While it is always tempting for a team to field a rookie, it’s a move that comes with huge what-ifs, and the consequences can often cost a team heavily if the move does not pay off in the long run.
With the speed and the characteristics of the Gen4 machine, Envision believe this is the right time to promote a budding youngster of O'Sullivan's calibre, who brings plenty of racing experience underneath and can dial in right from the off.
Will Envision’s decision to go for an all-new driver pairing - and follow its philosophy of promoting from within, pay off? It remains to be seen, as Formula E heads into the upcoming Gen4 era.
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