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Future Formula E conquerer? Pourchaire's Maserati test
With the F1 door closed, Theo Pourchaire is about to get a Formula E chance - once Sam Smith thinks could be the start of something big
Théo Pourchaire will take part in the extra Formula E practice session for rookies in Jeddah with Maserati MSG next week as he continues to evaluate his long-term future in motorsport for 2025 and beyond.
The Race has learned that Pourchaire will drive Stoffel Vandoorne's car in the 40-minute session and has already completed simulator testing for the team.
The 2023 Formula 2 champion drove in both IndyCar and Super Formula last year, in IndyCar with McLaren and in Japan with Team Impul. The 21-year-old also got his first taste of a Hypercar with a test run in a Peugeot in November.
Pourchaire is no stranger to Formula E having been the initial test and development driver in 2022 for the Gen3 project. He racked up several test days with Spark and ART Grand Prix personnel in what was a difficult birth for the car. It included a sizeable accident at the Calafat test track in February 2022.
Both at that time and subsequently Pourchaire has had talks with some teams in Formula E about the future but Maserati MSG is the first where actual running will take place.
Beyond Jeddah, nothing else is planned for Pourchaire although the possibility of also appearing at the Berlin rookie test in July will be discussed after his initial run.
Speaking to The Race about Pourchaire's deal, team principal Cyril Blais said: "When you look at his pedigree and his career, he's definitely a fast driver.
"He's accomplished a lot, so he was always on our radar. Now, I'm quite impatient to see what he can do on track, because so far from the first simulator session with us, we're quite impressed by his speed and his feedback. He looks like an exciting prospect for this."
Blais also admitted that Pourchaire’s previous experience with the Spark run Gen3 mule car was "part of the equation" in giving him the Jeddah opportunity.
"He's got some notion of Formula E after that time," added Blais.
"He's really switched on to understand the Formula E concept pretty quickly. But also, it's very difficult to understand how deep the knowledge and feeling is and because the development programme with Spark, a mule car, it's more about reliability and development than pure performance. But at least it gave him a chance to understand and to know what a Formula E car is."
But will he lead Formula E's next generation?
The Gen4 Formula E era will mark a sea change in how the grid looks, with a sweep of well-known names set to vacate their seats either at the end of this season or after the 2025-26 campaign, the last of the Gen3/Gen3 Evo ruleset.
Sebastien Buemi, Lucas di Grassi, Sam Bird, Norman Nato and Edoardo Mortara are seen as unlikely to continue into that era as race drivers, so it's more likely that new talent will be promoted into the world championship.
It has started at a low level already, with Zane Maloney and Taylor Barnard graduating to race seats for the 2024-25 season with Lola and McLaren respectively.
Formula E teams have been notoriously conservative in their recruitment for much of its history.
Nissan elected to return to Nato for a second spell in their relationship rather than stick with a more youthful but out-of-form Sacha Fenestraz last season. Envision too opted for continuity and experience with Buemi and Robin Frijns despite looking around for a potential change in early summer.
What teams perceive they need is experience and technical leadership in their programmes. The intricacies and understanding of the complex systems and software applications in the series mean that a premium is placed on experience and technical aptitude.
But last season Barnard's performance in Berlin in particular rocked these widely held beliefs a little. The 20-year-old has since gone on to score a podium position on his fourth-ever Formula E start (above), while Maloney has started his Formula E journey off strongly - albeit in a package that is far from completely developed.
Over the next six-to-12 months teams will be blooding more and more new talent, including Pourchaire, who is widely seen as an unattached driver who could have a future in Formula E.
While some F2 and F3 drivers will naturally pursue slim F1 hopes, many others will perhaps now feel a bit more emboldened to follow the Maloney model of, for now, eschewing F1 and getting paid well to race in a highly technical and growing world championship.
Former Williams reserve driver Zak O'Sullivan is one of many now looking more seriously at Formula E and told The Race that Formula E was "an interesting series" and "one of a kind".
"It's an attractive career route, and I think the success of Taylor and Zane is nice to see because it shows the route from F2 is a viable one," he said.
The development of the Gen4 cars, which will happen from the spring of 2026, could also benefit from fresh eyes as much as experienced ones. It should be a sizeable reset for a large chunk of the Formula E driver market, and those deals will start to happen in readiness this summer.
So Pourchaire, who dismissed (via a tweet) being linked to actually racing in Formula E back in 2022, is now much more open to the series. That's natural considering he has undeservedly fallen off the F1 radar, and seemingly the IndyCar one too for now.
This new adventure should now be seen as an opportunity to dig further into Formula E and potentially forge a career in it from an early stage - because a naturally gifted and intelligent racer such as Pourchaire can become the next Jean-Eric Vergne or Buemi, and win big and earn big as Formula E makes a giant step up with Gen4 from 2026 onwards.
