Opel is being primed to return to world championship competition as its parent company Stellantis looks set to shake-up its brand representation in Formula E from 2026.
The Race can reveal that recent high-level talks within Stellantis Motorsport have resulted in Opel emerging as a strong favourite to represent it in Formula E from the start of the Gen4 rules cycle.
It could be one of at least two Stellantis brands to be in the Gen4 era, although Maserati - which was notionally announced last November as part of Stellantis' official manufacturer registration for the new ruleset - isn't expected to be one of them.
Opel came under the Stellantis branch of automotive brands in 2021, having previously been a PSA Group company - and prior to that, a marque under the General Motors umbrella.
It has an illustrious heritage in motorsport, having mostly been associated with rallying, clinching the 1982 World Rally Championship drivers' title with the Ascona 400 driven by legendary rally ace Walter Rohrl.
The 1980s was also when it became a central pillar in junior single-seater competition via its involvement in the Opel Euroseries in which the likes of Mika Hakkinen, Allan McNish, Rubens Barrichello and Heinz-Harald Frentzen cut their racing teeth.
Opel also raced extensively in the original DTM, the International Touring Car that succeeded it, and the rebooted DTM format from the 1980s into the early 2000s with drivers such as Keke Rosberg, Manuel Reuter, Yannick Dalmas and Frentzen (pictured below) competing for the German manufacturer.
More recently, it has been competing in the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup with the Opel Corsa Rally Electric. The programme has been managed by Opel Motorsport director Joerg Schrott.
He and senior vice president of Stellantis Motorsport, Jean-Marc Finot, could now be taking Opel back into world championship competition.
Speaking to The Race at the Miami E-Prix last weekend, Finot would not confirm which Stellantis brands would participate in the Gen4 era, saying: "So far, we are discussing with many brands, so I cannot disclose our internal discussion."
When pushed on Opel's plans, Finot said that "the programme in which we are engaged with Opel is very well adapted to the brand".
"We are in an E-Rally with the Opel Corsa," added Finot.
"We are very proud to have brought a new way of racing with an electric rally car. It's good because it makes Opel as a brand very approachable by customers and by the public. It's also, I think, good for the future of rallying as when we are racing with electric cars, we are welcomed by everyone."
Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds told The Race that Stellantis had "very cool brands" and that Formula E was waiting to hear from Stellantis "what they think the right brands and the best fit for Formula E are for the next phase of their journey and the next phase of our journey".
"We love working with them and they're very transparent with us," added Dodds.
Stellantis' ongoing Gen4 structure debate
Stellantis has a degree of flexibility in how it executes its brand representation in Gen4, with multiple options available to it.
Presently, it has a model of partnering with independent entities, Penske and the Monaco Sports Group (MSG).
Its involvement with Penske is believed to be unlikely to continue in its present guise for Gen4, with Jay Penske and his technical director Phil Charles understood to be considering other partnerships or potentially becoming a standalone manufacturer entry.
The Penske side of the partnership is known to have spoken closely to Porsche recently. In Penske's previous guise as Dragon Racing, the two almost partnered up at the end of the Gen1 era in 2017 - with then-factory driver Neel Jani even briefly driving for the Jay Penske-owned squad.
The MSG operation has recently been in a state of turmoil after a collapsed takeover put it in a fragile position whereby its licence and business operation are now under the auspices of Formula E itself.
That means Stellantis is seriously considering restructuring its model for Gen4 with a potential licence slot of its own - it has never actually owned a team - rather choosing to partner with a squad as it first did with Virgin Racing (2015-18), then Techeetah (2018-22) and, in the present Gen3 era, Penske and MSG.
Owning a team would likely mean taking the 12th licence, which has been available and toted heavily by Formula E since 2021 when Audi left the championship.
When pushed on whether Stellantis could own a team and run one of its brands through that channel, Finot said: "Yes, it could be and we have time before Gen4, so we are scanning different scenarios.
"To be a full factory team, it could be one of them, but I think that we have a good experience. We have been racing in partnerships for 10 seasons and we won some championships.
"The way we are working with partners, it's efficient from the financial side, of course. As we are used to that, it works well.
"We could keep on like that, we could adapt. For the time being, it's still open."
So, the actual make-up of Stellantis brands and how they fit into Formula E is yet to be completely decided but a decision is imminent in order for it to begin the crucial Gen4 development phase on track, which will kick off this autumn and into the winter of 2025-26.
The make-up of the brands, apart from a likely Opel entry, is understood to in all probability to be between DS Automobiles and Citroen.
The latter of those brands stopped entering a factory World Rally team in 2019, although it does still support teams in the World Rally Championship's WRC2 category (above) and drivers in junior rallying competitions.
