Hello all! This is my review of 2026 CUPRA Raval Madrid ePrix and this is the first ePrix that will have PitBoost and not be a doubleheader. Another thing of note is a letter signed by all Formula E drivers was sent to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem asking for "internal evaluation of (the) race director (sic) understanding and reasoning of the sporting rules" as they believe that the race director is "without the capacity – and humility – to acknowledge and learn from mistakes, there is little evidence of continuous improvement". The Race has a few articles about this letter and link to the article detailing the letter is provided here.
There is also another rookie test on the Sunday 22nd March and everyone is fielding 2 drivers for this test with notable names include: Audi development driver Freddie Slater (Andretti), 2023 Formula 2 Champion Theo Pourchaire (Citroen Racing), Formula 1 podium finisher Daniil Kvyat (DS Penske), 2019 Macau Grand Prix winner Richard Verschoor (Lola Yamaha ABT), 2025 Macau Grand Prix Winner Theophile Nael (Mahindra Racing), and 2025 DTM Champion Ayhancan Guven (Porsche).
The next Formula E race will be the 2026 Berlin ePrix doubleheader with the first race on 2nd May 2026 at 15:00 UTC and the second race on 3rd May 2026 at 15:00 UTC. You can find out where to watch it here and I will see you again in 2 weeks time as I am away all this week.

Qualifying

Group A consisted of: Pascal Wehrlein, Oliver Rowland, Mitch Evans, Antonio Felix da Costa, Sebastien Buemi, Josep Maria 'Pepe' Marti, Nyck de Vries, Jean-Eric Vergne, Zane Maloney, and Felipe Drugovich. It was a wet morning in Madrid, so everyone were squirming on acceleration due to the lack of grip, but despite topping a wet Free Practice 2 earlier in the day Felipe would not advance, while the 4 that advance were: Nyck, Antonio, Pascal and Oliver.
Group B went next and consisted of Edoardo Mortara, Nick Cassidy, Nico Mueller, Jake Dennis, Joel Eriksson, Taylor Barnard, Dan Ticktum, Max Guenther, Norman Nato, and Lucas Di Grassi. Being fastest in Free Practice was not indicative of making the duels as Free Practice 1 pace-setter Dan missed out on making to the Duel stage and the 4 that made it from group B were: Norman, Edoardo, Nick, and Max.
The 1st Quarter-Final was between Pascal and Antonio, with the latter winning thanks to a mistake for Pascal in to turn 1 as well as issues for his front powertrain and the 2nd was between Oliver and Nyck with the latter moving on to Semi-Final 1 after Oliver half-spins in turn 3. Quarter-Final 3 was between Nick and Edoardo, which saw the former advance after a small mistake for Edoardo in turn 9 and the final Quarter-Final was between Max and Norman which saw the latter moving on to Semi-Final 2 after a mistake from Max in turn 5 puts him off line for turn 6 and he goes off in turn 7. Semi-Final 1 was between Antonio and Nyck, which Nyck won despite going off on his out-lap in turn 1 and Semi-Final 2 was between Norman and Nick with the latter advancing to the final after Norman goes off in turn 7. The Final saw Nick (with an i) winning after a snap of oversteer for Nyck (with an y) into turn 6 compromised his entry into turn 7, costing him a 0.25 second advantage he had made up to that point.

Race

Overall Drivers' Championship

Antonio Felix da Costa wins the race from Mitch Evans in 2nd and Pascal Wehrlein in 3rd, becoming the first driver since Nick Cassidy (the driver he replaced at Jaguar) in London last season to win 2 races in a row. The track had dried out since qualifying, so there were less off-track excursions than expected however, the race still did have its share of incidents. Firstly, Zane Maloney had a drive-through penalty before lap 1 had finished as he used too much energy to get from the pits to the dummy grid and Oliver Rowland would also pick up a drive-through penalty for overpower on Lap 1, specifically at the start. Nissan's other driver didn't have a clean lap 1 either as he would lock up into turn 1 and go wide, dropping about 8 places and Nyck de Vries' race would effectively be over after he misjudged how much Pascal Wehrlein would slow down for turn 10 on lap 2 and take his front wing completely off after it went over the rear of Pascal's car and would pick up a 5 second penalty as well for causing a collision. Nyck's day would get even worse as he would cross over the 2nd line of the pit position in front of him, which the drivers had been told not to do and he picked up another 5 second penalty. He, however, would not end the day with the most time accrued from time penalties as Taylor Barnard would pick up 15 seconds worth of penalty after forcing Stellantis teammate Jean-Eric Vergne off at turn 4 on lap 9, inheriting 10 seconds that way and the other 5 come from forcing Nico Mueller off at turn 1 later in the ePrix and we don't see a replay of said incident. Another loser is Google Gemini as its race insight on lap 14 predicts that Felipe Drugovich would take Attack Mode that lap, which if he did, then the FIA would be having stern words with Andretti Formula E as he had already used Attack Mode earlier to cycle himself to the front!
The top 2 finishers had a similar but differing strategy as Antonio saved energy whilst hanging around at the front as only spent 5 laps outside the top 5 and 3 of those were just after he pitted. Mitch, on the other hand, wouldn't crack the top 10 until lap 12 at which point the pit window had already opened, so the ever increasing amount of clear air meant it was ample time to push and he would emerge out in 7th on lap 15 after he pitted despite being 16th prior to the pit window opening on lap 10. He, however, was incensed immediately after the race because as he closed on his teammate; Jaguar asked its drivers to hold position in an effort to prevent Pascal or Dan Ticktum from stealing the win after the inevitable overtaking attempt would see at least one fall away from the leading quartet and Mitch believed he was faster and had been on the right strategy to win.
One who got the strategy wrong (again) was Nick, who despite leading 8 of the first 9 laps (tying with Antonio for most laps lead in the ePrix) would find himself stuck behind the slower CUPRA Kiro drivers and tried to get his team to contact Kiro to allow him to get past, although I highly doubt a Stellantis-backed manufacturer team would have a Porsche customer on speed-dial (or more specifically on private radio communication). The slowness convinced Nick that the Kiro team hadn't realised that it was a PitBoost race and they didn't need to be so slow for the sake of efficiency, thus marking them down as amateurs and while issues last time in Jeddah certainly support this view, one must remember that they are running an older version of Porsche 99X Electric powertrain, which probably isn't as efficient as his Citroen Racing e-CX (DS E-TENSE FE25) powertrain and are fielding a rookie driver that is still learning how to race efficiently (need I remind how bad you were in your first 2 seasons).

1. Pascal Wehrlein (=0)
2. Edoardo Mortara (=0)
3. Mitch Evans (+1)
4. Antonio Felix da Costa (+3)
5. Nico Mueller (=0)
6. Jake Dennis (+2)

Only 1 driver has less points under the alternative format compared to real life and he is Nick Cassidy who has 50 under the alternative format whereas in real life they has 51. Edoardo Mortara matches his points totals across both formats (72) and the driver who has the most points compared to real life is Max Guenther, who has 21 more points under the alternative format (29) compared to real life (8). There are differences between the standings and the drivers who gains the most position's under the alternative format are: Jake Dennis, Pepe Marti, and Max, who all gains 2 places to be 6th, 10th, and 14th under alternative format respectively compared to 8th, 12th, and 14th in real life respectively. The driver who loses the most positions is Nick Cassidy who drop 4 places to be 9th under the alternative format, but is 5th in real life.
Below are the overall Drivers' Championship standings:

Customer Trophy for Drivers

The class is won by Dan Ticktum with 2nd in class going to Jake Dennis and 3rd to Sebastien Buemi, although Dan is only 19 points of 5th place in the standings. Dan leads the class out of turn 1 on lap 1 and first loses the lead through turn 1 on lap 8 to an Attack Mode-powered Felipe Drugovich but gets it back into turn 1 on lap 10 only to lose it again on the same lap on the exit of turn 7 to his teammate Pepe Marti, who is in Attack Mode. Pepe leads both the class and the race until he pits on lap 14 and cycles out behind Sebastien who leads until turn on lap 17 where he goes wide to take Attack Mode and loses the lead to Dan but gets it back through turn 10 on the same lap. Sebastien properly relinquishes the lead on lap 21 as Dan passes him around the outside into turn 3 thanks to the extra power of Attack Mode and Dan leads from here until the chequered flag. Pepe's 4th place in class sees him finally overhaul Felipe for 4th in the standings for the only change in championship position in this class.
Below are the Customer Trophy for Drivers standings:

Nelson Piquet Jr Trophy

The winner of the class is Nico Mueller with 2nd going to Pepe Marti and 3rd to Joel Eriksson. Zane Maloney starts off in the lead of the class but his drive-through penalty immediately takes him out of contention for winning the class and hands the lead to Pepe, who leads until turn 2 on lap 2 as Nico sweeps around to take the lead. The next lead change occurs at the end of lap 4 as Pepe initially exits the final chicane, but Nico retakes the lead before the finish line to lead going into lap 5 although there is a new leader for the start of lap 6 as Felipe Drugovich powers to the lead thanks to Attack Mode. Felipe loses the lead to Pepe, who is in Attack Mode, on the run up to turn 6 on lap 10 and he maintains it until lap 16 when he is overtaken by Nico in Attack Mode. Nico leads from here until the end of the race. There are no change of championship position for any driver, although Nico has now tied the record for most class wins at 10, as the other drivers are: Season 8 champion Oliver Askew, Season 9 champion Dan Ticktum, and Jake Hughes. Meanwhile Joel is 1 race off tying Antonio Giovinazzi for 'most Nelson Piquet Jr Trophy class starts without a win' as this was his 14th start (the record is 15).
Below are the Nelson Piquet Jr Trophy standings:

Overall Teams' Championship

The top 3 in the standings under both formats are Porsche Formula E Team, Jaguar TCS Racing, and Mahindra Racing in that order. No team has less points under the alternative format compared to their real life points total although for Jaguar and Mahindra it is only by 1 and 2 points respectively. There is 1 change between the 2 formats in terms of the standings as Andretti Formula E swap places with Nissan Formula E Team, so Andretti are 6th under the alternative format but are 7th in real life and tied for points under alternative format, with Jake Dennis's win in Sao Paulo the tiebreaker in Andretti's favour. The biggest gainer in terms of points is DS Penske who have 35 more points under the alternative format (57) compared to real life (22).
Below are the overall Teams' Championship standings:

Customer Teams' Championship

CUPRA Kiro's win means that only Seasons 9 (2022-2023) and 10 (2023-2024) are the only seasons where not every Customer team wins in the Customer Class (the teams in Season 9 were McLaren and ABT, while in Season 10 it was only ABT). However, this is not enough to make any serious dent in the deficit it has to either of its rivals as it is only 19 and 26 points off of Andretti Formula E and Envision Racing respectively as well as no change to the standings compared to going into the ePrix.
Below are the Customer Teams' Championship standings:

Manufacturers' Cup

Porsche continues to lead the standings in Manufacturers' Cup under both formats with points total of 155 (alternative) and 170 (real life). Jaguar move up to 2nd under the alternative format to match their real life championship position and Stellantis is 3rd under both formats, meaning there is no difference between real life and the alternative format. There is however, a difference in terms of points totals as Porsche and Jaguar are the only manufacturers to have less points under the alternative format, with Jaguar having the biggest discrepancy at 26 points. The biggest gainer in terms of points is still Lola-Yamaha, whose 59 points under the alternative format is 37 points greater than their real life total of 22.
Below are the Manufacturers' Cup standings: