Maximilian Guenther will partner Formula E's only double champion Jean-Eric Vergne at the DS Penske squad for at least the next two seasons for what might just prove to be Vergne's biggest ever team-mate test.
Guenther, who signed for the team in June and has since tested the Gen3 Evo DS development car, will soon be confirmed as a DS Penske driver up to at least the end of the Gen3 era in 2026.
Vergne hasn't been able to challenge for a third title since joining the new DS Penske alliance at the end of 2022 but has had two of his best seasons in terms of personal performance with a sometimes tricky package that has rarely been on level terms with cars powered by the top marques Porsche and Jaguar.
In fact, Vergne has stacked up very well against the vast majority of his garage rivals in the past.
It was only a complex intra-team situation during a fraught single season with DS Virgin (now Envision) versus Sam Bird in 2015-16 and then losing out to Antonio Felix da Costa in two seasons (2019-20 and 2020-21) where he lagged behind.
Across a decade that's a strong record, especially because along the way he's handled the likes of Andre Lotterer, da Costa and most recently Stoffel Vandoorne pretty comfortably.
Guenther has the capacity to push Vergne in ways he probably hasn't been before though. But it will only happen if Guenther continues his upward trend of maturing and focus.
Formula E's youngest ever race winner, Guenther took his maiden win at Santiago in January 2020 aged 22, and his rise to Formula E prominence has been layered over six seasons to a point that feels like a settling of his talents.
That it will occur in a team that is still properly forming after a lot of personnel changes in the last 12 months could be viewed as good or poor timing depending on who you talk to within the black and gold team.
DS Penske actually finished last season strongly, securing third position in the teams' standings with a diligent Vergne and a quick but pack-racing-rusty Vandoorne.
Guenther has several attributes that made him attractive to DS Penske. The most convenient was that he was already within the Stellantis umbrella with Maserati MSG, making a switch efficiently easy despite a contract with the Monegasque team.
But more telling was the fact that while Maserati itself was recalibrating and reforming both on and off the track, Guenther was delivering much more consistently with an average of 10 points in the first six races in 2024.
That might not look that spectacular but in the context of the strength of opposition across eight Porsche and Jaguar entries as well as the DS Penske duo, Guenther was up there with Oliver Rowland in the first half of the season as the most impressive performer on the grid.
That form fell away - there were incidents in the peloton in Berlin, a wipe-out from over-eager team-mate Jehan Daruvala at Portland, and poor reliability plus getting caught up in a contentious Nick Cassidy-da Costa altercation cost him in London - but there wasn't much that was anything other than positive about Guenther's 2024.
DS Penske duly took notice, especially new technical leader and de facto team principal Phil Charles.
Charles is known to rate Guenther very highly, a testimonial to treasure from someone who has worked extensively with Mitch Evans, season one champion Nelson Piquet Jr and Vergne closely.
This is likely to be based on Guenther's raw pace and ability to dig out results for Maserati using the same powertrain used by DS run. Nowhere was that more evident than in Tokyo, where Guenther won and Vergne and Vandoorne weren't just unable to match him but didn't even make the points.
That will have caught Charles's attention and added to his admiration of Guenther, as will the compelling focus in which he works with teams.
To the outside world Guenther is the pleasant, courteous and mild-mannered professional we all see on the TV screens and in the paddock. Behind the scenes these traits are still evident but with it come an unshakeable desire and drive that is sometimes confused with overambition and a touch of haughtiness.
The discrepancy sometimes between Guenther out of the cockpit and the steely and clearly pitiless performer within it confuses some. But in an environment like Formula E, should it be so much?
His first fractious season with a disjointed Dragon team in 2018-19 and a woeful campaign with a rock bottom Nissan in 2021-22 aside, Guenther has always delivered wins or podiums. He still has more (four) than Vandoorne, Robin Frijns, Nyck de Vries and Rowland, but has rarely had the plaudits or, until now, the deals that those drivers attain.
Guenther showed from his very first races in Formula E that he had staying power.
While much older and more experienced professionals such as Neel Jani, Brendon Hartley, Felipe Nasr and Jose Maria Lopez fell by the wayside in Formula E, Guenther dug in and fought back getting himself drives with three major manufacturers: BMW, Nissan and now DS.
It takes more than just being Mr Nice Guy to get those, and perhaps Gunther's new team-mate might take note of these often hidden traits as he gets set for one of the more intriguing challenges of his career to date.
