Ahead of the official pre-season test: Formula E teams are planning a private Gen4 test in Valencia

Ahead of the official Formula E pre-season test in Madrid, the teams are apparently planning an additional Gen4 test in Valencia. At least one privately organised test day is set to take place behind closed doors at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. This extra track time would be particularly valuable for the customer teams, as their own testing allocation is significantly smaller than that of the manufacturers.

According to information from FE Notebook, the additional test is set to take place ahead of the official pre-season test, which will be held from 16 to 20 November 2026 at the Circuito de Madrid Jarama.

According to the report, at least one full day of testing behind closed doors is planned for the privately organised event in Valencia. This is intended to give the teams the opportunity to review their Gen4 cars and their systems once more before the joint pre-season test.

Why the Valencia test would be particularly important for the customer teams

The additional track time in Valencia would be particularly valuable for the customer teams. Andretti, Cupra Kiro and Envision have far fewer opportunities to test the new Gen4 car privately than the manufacturers.

According to the FIA, over the entire Gen4 cycle from Season 13 up to and including Season 16, a manufacturer has a total allocation of at least 40 private test days. Of these, 36 are earmarked for the manufacturer’s own development runs, whilst four must be allocated to the team it supplies. For each additional team supplied, the allocation increases by four days.

In addition, according to the Sporting Regulations, each team is entitled to eight test days between 1 October 2026 and 30 September 2027. Six of these are set aside for mandatory official test sessions. At least three of these days must take place before the first race of the season. The teams may use the remaining two test days as they see fit.

Furthermore, each team is permitted to conduct six ‘film days’, of which no more than three may take place at a race circuit. Power output and energy consumption are generally limited to 350 kW and 40 kWh respectively.

Majority of Formula E teams expected in Valencia

As the planned event in Valencia would not form part of the official test programme, each participating team would have to use one of its two individually allocated test days for it. Participation would therefore not be compulsory. Each team could decide for itself whether to use the additional track time in Valencia or to save the test day for a later date. Nevertheless, the majority of Formula E teams are expected to take part in the privately organised test.

Formula E would thus be following a similar path to Formula 1 ahead of the 2026 season. Due to the extensive changes to the technical regulations, the Formula 1 teams already completed a private shakedown behind closed doors in Barcelona at the end of January. It was only afterwards that the official pre-season test sessions took place in Bahrain.

Whether the test in Valencia will go ahead as planned and which teams will take part has not yet been officially confirmed. At the latest during the joint pre-season test at Jarama from 16 to 20 November, all teams are set to take to the track together for the first time with their new Gen4 cars. The first race of the new generation of cars will take place on 18 December 2026 in Jeddah.