One of the great riddles of 2025 Formula E is what the future might hold for two manufacturers under one behemoth (Stellantis) umbrella: DS Automobiles and Maserati.
On paper, Maserati is already announced for the Gen4 period but this is by no means absolutely guaranteed as it could well be replaced by another Stellantis brand, and in some quarters of the paddock is expected to be.
DS' future is expected to be made much clearer soon but at present it is only committed until the end of the 2025-26 season with the licence held by Jay Penske via the DS Penske partnership.
Should DS Automobiles exit after next season it would be remembered very fondly.
The maverick French manufacturer had a strong record of achievement since it made its debut in the autumn of 2015, collecting 19 E-Prix wins across its DS Virgin, DS Techeetah and DS Penske incarnations, the last of which was at the recent Jeddah E-Prix with Maximilian Guenther.
But its ratio of wins is heavily top loaded in the Gen1 and Gen2 eras, with Gen3 proffering just two victories from 36 races.
In many ways, DS is the great success story of manufacturers in Formula E. It arrived just a year on from being established as a full-on manufacturer and, with its nod to an avant garde past as a product via the familie de Citroen, DS became established very quickly as a respected and innovative powertrain provider amid what was then the PSA collection of brands.
Three consecutive drivers' championships between Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa over 2017 to 2020 and two teams' championships over the last two of those seasons made it Formula E's benchmark in the late 2010s.
Now it feels as though its Formula E story is winding down. There is no official confirmation yet on whether it will or won't be going into a fourth ruleset in 2026 but the silence from its board members is becoming deafening.
The reasons for the uncertainty are numerous. Notably the exit of Stellantis' chief and motorsport/marketing decision maker Carlos Tavares late last year and the subsequent inordinately long delay in appointing his successor. Stellantis president John Elkann is currently making the major decisions, yet who will replace Tavares has not been one of them so far.
DS' model in Formula E is centred on modest spend for maximum impact, but title-partner naming and marketing creativity only goes so far in Formula E. It's a model that DS and Maserati have employed and enjoyed over many seasons now but its activity is not being reflected by advancing car sales at present.
Therefore, in Maserati's case it is hard to see why or how it can be in Gen4, should DS extend its decade-long Formula E odyssey. Two 'luxury' brands in the same strand of motorsport simply doesn't make sense.
Stellantis is believed to be committed to Formula E but what shape and form that takes appears to still be up for grabs.
Option 1: DS continues with Penske
What might that doubt about two luxury brands attempting to coexist in one championship mean for the present DS Penske alliance and its set-up?
Like the previous Techeetah partnership, this one is weighted to Penske in terms of ownership and absolute power as it owns the entry. Yet DS gets very good optics, utilising that official team naming right and big space on the sidepod and nose of the car.
Could that structure change for Gen4 and the Franco/American/British squad carry on in harmony?
It feels a bit unlikely. The partnership has gone through uneasy periods over the last 12 months with volatility in its team structure amid multiple departures and a change of philosophy and outlook in working practice.
The overall structure after the appointment of Phil Charles last March changed. Charles is the deputy team principal, although day-to-day the former Jaguar technical talisman more or less runs the show, and certainly informs a lot of the big operational and technical decisions.
But is it for the better? The Jeddah win would tip that answer into a clear yes but it came after a painful two-year winless period.
In parallel to Charles's headline-grabbing switch last winter, Jay Penske invested heavily in a new facility called Penske Autosport Research Labs Limited, based in Witney, UK. This investment includes a state-of-the-art Ansible Motion Delta S3 driver-in-the-loop simulator. Hold that thought for option two!
Option 2: Continue without Penske. But with who?
Could DS stay but race with another entity? It's possible but unlikely because the DS model with Penske is structured differently to most other manufacturer and customer alliances.
DS could hook up with old partner Envision (which was Virgin when they ran together in Gen1) but the feeling amid the green part of the paddock is that sticking with current supplier Jaguar, despite recent frustrations, is the way ahead.
Mahindra could be a decent shout for DS should it, as expected, switch from being a full-fat manufacturer to a customer proposition.
But perhaps the more intriguing question is: what could Penske do if DS vacated the stage? That's a challenging one, because on paper its options appear limited.
That's because it is hard to see Penske hooking up with Jaguar because of the Charles element of the equation. Charles left Jaguar at the end of 2023 to accept a significant offer from Jay Penske to head up the DS Penske effort, and while Charles' work at Jaguar was notable his move was a surprise, and not a pleasant one for the Jaguar bigwigs as some staff gravitated to DS Penske in the aftermath too.
The aforementioned Penske Autosport Research Labs Limited has long been rumoured to be a neat 'Plan B' for Penske to become a manufacturer in its own right. But as of now it has not registered as one and it is understood that the strong internal preference is to continue the model of partnering with a manufacturer.
What better one than Porsche? Mirroring the close relationship that Penske's father Roger has with the legendary marque, it is a potential new entity that trips off the tongue: Penske Porsche.
Is there some credence to this notion? The Race understands that talks between the two have recently taken place and that Porsche's existing customer Andretti is engaged in close talks with an alternative manufacturer for Gen4.
A Penske Porsche set-up is a familiar phrase in motorsport already and, while maybe being the romantic version of what could occur, it might be attractive to both parties.
Option 3: Another Stellantis brand comes in
This option is definitely being studied among the smorgasbord of brands available to fill any void a DS and/or Maserati exit brings.
Maserati is in disarray. It has scrapped proposals for an electric version of its MC20 sportscar and other all-electric projects have been cancelled across the various brands.
Its continuing involvement in Formula E therefore appears to make little sense to the outside world. So, here are the present positive options open to Stellantis and what might happen going forward as it strives to somehow keep at least one of its brands in Formula E.
What we do know is that Stellantis, via a Maserati registration, committed to Gen4 last November, although it is open to debate whether it will actually continue to be racing in Formula E as Maserati. It is no given, especially in light of reports of Maserati's increasingly poor 2024 car sales that showed a drop of 57%, with decreased deliveries from 26,600 cars in 2023 to just 11,300 units last year.
The Race understands that the November Gen4 Maserati registration was afforded some flexibility to apply for a change of brand registration name within it.
It makes little sense for Maserati to be in Formula E now and in the future. So, it is entirely possible that it will be replaced either by one of Alfa Romeo, Citroen or Opel for the 2026-27 season.
All those brands have significant motorsport heritage and feel as though they are due for a concerted racing programme. Activation of this plan would be awkward in some areas but using Stellantis' know-how and expertise in Formula E would of course give any of these brands a major leg-up.
Another way: The 12th team licence
Formula E's last remaining racing team licence has been up for grabs for several years now since the Audi works team exited in 2021.
The championship's constitution allows for a maximum of 24 cars largely for freighting and logistical reasons. Interest in the empty slot has been, at best, limited and sporadic.
But could Stellantis look at securing the slot and forming a new model away from its DS Penske and Maserati MSG set-ups of minimal commercial spend for maximum technical (DS) and marketing (Maserati) return?
Could a bespoke Stellantis team running under its own licence be a possibility? If the manufacturer truly believes in the potential of Formula E, surely it would be a no-brainer to be more in charge of its own destiny?
That solution is known to be an attractive one for some Stellantis Motorsport managers and it is believed that some discussions have taken place in which one of its brands forms an operation more akin to the standalone Nissan, Porsche and Jaguar entities.
Should that happen then DS would surely be the prime brand to kickstart such a quest. Knowledge, experience and a winning know-how would bring more than just an element of plug-in and play.
But where would that leave the MSG team that currently operates under the Maserati flag?
That operation has been involved in an increasingly complicated potential takeover saga and its future is unknown beyond the next few months, never mind into Gen4.
Right now, it's impossible to strategically hypothesise where MSG or Maserati will be at the end of 2026. But plans for then have to be formed imminently, so movement one way or another by Stellantis as soon as possible is an absolute key for Formula E as a whole.
