2026 Hankook Berlin E-Prix Preview: Wehrlein, the Championship Fight, and a Farewell in the Making

Formula E returns to Berlin for Rounds 7 and 8 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, and Tempelhof carries more weight than usual this time. Pascal Wehrlein arrives as championship leader on 83 points, racing in front of his home crowd on a circuit he has never won at. António Félix da Costa arrives on three wins from the last four races, including back-to-back victories with Jaguar TCS Racing. Mitch Evans arrives knowing these 11 remaining races are his last for the team he has spent a decade with. The circuit that has hosted Formula E every single season since 2015 is about to host one of the most loaded double-headers of Season 12.

Key Points: 2026 Berlin E-Prix preview

• Rounds 7 and 8 at Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit, 2-3 May
• Pascal Wehrlein leads the championship on 83 points ahead of his home race
• Mitch Evans confirmed leaving Jaguar TCS Racing at the end of Season 12
• António Félix da Costa on three wins from the last four races
• Race 1 Saturday features PIT BOOST; Race 2 Sunday is traditional Formula E format
• Berlin is the only city on every Formula E calendar since Season 1

The Weekend Story: A Championship That Is Just Getting Started

Six rounds in and the standings look compressed. Wehrlein leads on 83 points. He has the consistency and the momentum, but not a race win in Berlin despite coming close. Mortara on 72 points has been fast all season and converted none of it into a victory. Da Costa is fourth on 64, 19 points off the lead, with three wins in four races and a car clearly performing at a different level to where it was in the opening rounds. Forty-eight championship points are available across this double-header. That number matters. The gap between first and fourth is 19 points. A single bad weekend for Wehrlein and a good one for da Costa and the picture looks very different by Sunday evening. Berlin has delivered 15 different winners across 22 races at Tempelhof. It has a habit of upending expectations. The championship fight is properly on. The other story sitting alongside the title battle is Mitch Evans. Jaguar confirmed on 27 April, by mutual agreement, that he will leave the team at the end of Season 12. Ten years. 15 victories, the most in Formula E history, all of them with one team. He is third in the standings. He is not done. But the farewell has started, and Tempelhof is where it begins in earnest.

Jaguar TCS Racing: Form, Farewell, and a Title to Chase

Three wins from the last four races, a 1-2 finish in Madrid only the third in Jaguar’s decade-long Formula E history, and second in both standings. The numbers tell the story of where this team is right now. The context sitting behind them is more complicated. Evans brings 21 podiums, 10 pole positions, nine fastest laps and 1,064 points into these final 11 races. He is measured about the departure. His focus is on the championship, on Berlin, on keeping the momentum rolling. Da Costa’s championship gap to Wehrlein is 19 points, recoverable across two races, and he arrives at a circuit where he holds a tied record of three personal victories alongside Nick Cassidy. Berlin has historically been a strong venue for Jaguar. Four wins from the last six races at Tempelhof, including a 1-2 in Season 9 and a double-win weekend in Season 11. Ian James, Team Principal, is direct about the mood inside the garage: focused and hungry for more.

Porsche Formula E Team: Home Race, 75 Years, No Berlin Win Yet

Wehrlein gets the home crowd and the weight of 75 years of Porsche motorsport history alongside him this weekend, with historic race cars in the Fan Village. A championship lead built on consistency rather than race wins. And a Tempelhof circuit where, despite multiple attempts, he has not yet stood on the top step. He came closest last year with second across a weekend Jaguar dominated. This season the car and strategy have delivered the standings lead. Whether this is finally the Berlin weekend Wehrlein converts is the question the championship turns on.

Nissan Formula E Team: Rowland, Nato, and the Weight of Memory

Both Nissan drivers carry something personal into Berlin. Oliver Rowland took his maiden Formula E victory at Tempelhof in 2020, won the championship here last July, and has three further podiums at the circuit since. Norman Nato claimed his first win in the championship here in 2021. Berlin is where both of them first won. That is not an automatic advantage, but it is not nothing either. Tommaso Volpe was direct about where the team stands. The break after Madrid provided analysis time they do not usually get mid-season, and the team believe they have identified the reasons behind their recent race struggles. Qualifying has been a consistent strength, with at least one car advancing to the duels at every round. Converting that front row pace into race points is the task Berlin needs to deliver on.

CUPRA KIRO: Momentum, Patience, and Two Different Races

Consecutive double points finishes in Jeddah and Madrid have CUPRA KIRO arriving with momentum. Racing Director Gary Paffett’s pre-event read on Tempelhof is unusually specific, and he has raced here. Race 1 on Saturday is a strategic chess match. PIT BOOST makes timing the stop and Attack Mode activation the decisions that define the result. Paffett expects a late Attack Mode to be the winning move, particularly as the field splits through the pit window. Race 2 on Sunday strips all of that back. Traditional Formula E format, energy management over the full distance, racecraft in the closing laps. Same circuit, entirely different problem to solve. The tyre picture adds another layer across both days. Berlin’s concrete surface is highly abrasive. The triple-apex section through Turns 12, 13 and 14 is where degradation accumulates fastest and where management decisions made earlier in the lap are either rewarded or punished. Russell O’Hagan, Team Principal, framed it clearly. They have been getting closer. Madrid felt like a near-podium. With over 60 percent of the season still ahead, the gap between where they are and the podium is closing.

Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit: RACE

2.345km. 15 turns. Concrete surface. Clockwise. Berlin is the only city on every Formula E calendar since Season 1, and Tempelhof has hosted all but one of those races. The repeating concrete slabs create a surface with unique characteristics for the Hankook tyres. Higher degradation than most circuits. Complex energy demands because high grip requires more battery output. The long back section through the triple-apex complex is where tyre and energy management decisions intersect most sharply. Overtaking is genuine here. Wide corners at Turns 2, 6 and 9 produce consistent side-by-side racing. Attack Mode’s speed delta opens gaps that other circuits do not offer. Full Course Yellow and Safety Car periods are a probability, not just a possibility. Fifteen different winners across 22 races does not happen by accident. Tempelhof rewards preparation and punishes assumptions.

Buemi’s 150 and the GEN4 Moment

Sébastien Buemi reaches 150 Formula E race starts this weekend, having been part of the championship since the very first race in Beijing in 2014. Season 2 champion, 14 race wins, and a full WEC programme with Toyota running alongside his single-seater career. He took a podium in Jeddah this season and arrives in Berlin fresh from a HyperCar class victory at Imola. Last week at Circuit Paul Ricard, Formula E unveiled the GEN4 car. Racing from the 2026/27 season, it exceeds 335kph, hits 100kph in approximately 1.8 seconds, and delivers 50 percent more power in race mode than the current GEN3 Evo. Ten seconds faster per lap in qualifying mode. Permanent all-wheel drive. No rare earth minerals in the battery. Jaguar have already committed to the GEN4 era through Seasons 13 to 16. The next generation is already on track. GEN3 Evo is racing its final season.

PIT BOOST and Attack Mode: The Saturday Strategy Layer

Race 1 on Saturday runs with PIT BOOST. One mandatory stop, a 30-second 600kW charge delivering 10 percent energy, approximately 3.85kWh. The stop window opens when State of Charge sits between 40 and 60 percent. Total pit lane time approximately 34 seconds. No double-stacking. One rig per team. The interaction between PIT BOOST timing and Attack Mode activation is where Saturday is decided. Get both right and the gap builds through the final stint. Get either wrong and the race becomes a recovery exercise. Sunday removes PIT BOOST entirely. Energy management, Attack Mode placement, and racecraft over the closing laps decide Race 2. Two different races. Same track.

Sustainability: Embedded in the Event Framework

The 2026 Hankook Berlin E-Prix runs on a diversified energy mix combining grid electricity, 100 percent renewable HVO fuel, and integrated solar and battery storage. Air freight is reduced from three planes to two across Season 12. The Better Futures Fund lands in Berlin through a Porsche partnership, directing funding toward life-saving medical care for children globally. FIA Girls on Track hosts up to 120 young women across race week for workshops, gaming, career talks and a pit lane walk, with Hankook as presenting partner. The Community Tour brings over 200 participants from local community groups for a full day at the track, while 150 more join the FIA CareerShift initiative connecting local talent with motorsport careers. Formula E remains the first global sport certified to the BSI Net Zero Pathway Standard and the first motorsport series to achieve B Corp Certification.

How To Watch

Race 1 and Race 2 both start at 16:05 local time (15:05 BST). Live on talkSPORT in the UK. Full global broadcast listings via Formula E’s official Ways to Watch platform.

Coffee Corner Take

Forty-eight points across two days at the circuit that has produced 15 different winners from 22 races. Wehrlein leads on 83 and has never won here. Mortara is 11 back and still searching for his first win of the season despite the pace being there all year. Da Costa is 19 off the lead with three wins from four races and a car that has clearly found something. The championship is genuinely open and Berlin is exactly the kind of place to remind you why.

Rowland won the title here last year and has never fully clicked with Tempelhof. Nato took his first win at this circuit in 2021 and needs a result badly after a difficult opening half. Wehrlein leads a home race he has never won. Every one of those threads has somewhere to go across two race days and a double-header format that doubles the cost of every mistake. The circuit will catch someone out. It always does.

Two races. Two completely different strategy problems. Saturday with PIT BOOST is a chess match where the window defines the result. Sunday strips it back to energy management and racecraft. The team that reads both correctly first will leave Berlin with the championship picture looking very different to how it arrived. Right now that advantage belongs to no one. Which is exactly why this weekend matters.