FIA expands Formula E’s Gen4 technical regulations to include "brand-cultural decorative elements"

The FIA, motorsport’s world governing body, has published a new version of the technical regulations for Formula E’s Gen4 era: manufacturers will now be permitted to fit so-called brand-cultural decorative elements to their electric race cars. These must not, however, provide any technical advantage; rather, the idea is to strengthen fans’ identification with the manufacturers’ Gen4 machines.

A new Article 4.15 has been added to the technical regulations under the title "Historically traditional, brand-culturally connoted decorative elements." It allows manufacturers to supplement the otherwise standardised bodywork of the new cars with elements that were once typical of a given marque - or still are today.

Big news from @FIAFormulaE: The @FIA has published an updated #Gen4 technical regulation set - including a brand-new Article 4.15 on "Historically traditional, brand-culturally connoted decorative elements".

Full story soon, watch @eFORMULAnews/@eFORMELde!#FormulaE #ABBFormulaE pic.twitter.com/QI7XAT97c4

— Tobias Wirtz (@tobiw_apex) April 1, 2026

"Historically traditional, brand-culturally connoted decorative elements may be fitted to cars, provided they serve exclusively symbolic, representational or tradition-preserving purposes, including where such traditions rest more upon deeply rooted collective conviction than upon any clearly identifiable technical necessity," reads the new addition.

It continues: "Such elements will not be considered a non-compliant modification provided they are neither in fact, nor according to reasonable technical assessment, capable of influencing the safety of drivers, team personnel, marshals or officials, VIP guests, or spectators, media representatives or other persons present within the event perimeter. The Manufacturer must submit to the FIA, no later than 30 days prior to the first use of any such decorative element, CFD data demonstrating that no direct or indirect aerodynamic advantage is obtained."

"The Technical Delegates and the Stewards may, at any time, prohibit the use of any such decorative element or require its immediate removal where there is any suspicion that it exceeds a purely decorative purpose or begins to behave, in a manner difficult to reconcile with its heritage vocation, like an actual component."

An old Gen2-era idea returns

The thinking behind the rule change is not entirely new. Back in the Gen2 era, the FIA was already considering a similar addition to the technical regulations. However, like the Gen2 Evo update, it was shelved for cost reasons in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mercedes is said to have been the driving force behind the change at the time: the Stuttgart works team reportedly wanted to race with a Mercedes star mounted on the front of the car. According to sources close to Mercedes, scrapping that rule was the real reason behind the brand’s Formula E exit after Season 8.

Jaguar is currently planning to fit the Leaper - the marque’s traditional bonnet mascot in the form of a springing big cat - to its Gen4 cars. But according to information obtained by e-Formula.news, it was another manufacturer that provided the real push for the regulation change: Formula E newcomer Opel.

The next Formula E bombshell: Opel wants to race with a fox tail!

The Opel GSE Formula E Team wants to strengthen the bond between its fans and its factory effort in the electric series by sending its Gen4 cars onto the grid with a fox tail attached. The accessory, widely seen on cars in the 1980s, was particularly associated with Opel Manta drivers in West Germany and over time developed into an unofficial calling card - first of a scene, then of a stereotype, and eventually, in a turn rather characteristic of German car culture, into a symbol with at times greater public impact than the marque’s official brand communication itself.

According to people familiar with the project, Opel argued to the FIA that this was by no means merely a joke. Instead, the fox tail should be understood as a tradition-based marker that, perhaps more than any other single object, stands for the very brand perception that helped shape the Opel myth over several decades.

Within the FIA, the main point of debate is said to have been whether such an element might, under certain circumstances, still produce a technical effect. In particular, concerns that at higher speeds it might amount to a flexible structure that only appears folkloric on the surface while in fact exerting some aerodynamic influence reportedly triggered close scrutiny. Opel is then said to have assured the FIA that it would provide the required proof of complete aerodynamic neutrality - thereby, in effect, demonstrating that a fox tail may be culturally significant, but remains reassuringly limited in physical performance.

If the concept is ultimately approved, Opel would become the first brand in the history of the all-electric world championship to prove that technical compliance, brand-cultural identity work and a furry object attached to the bodywork do not necessarily cancel each other out.