Joel Eriksson becomes Formula E regular driver at Envision Racing & receives "multi-year contract"

Envision Racing announced its second regular driver for the coming season on Thursday. The Swede Joel Eriksson has signed a multi-year contract with the team and will succeed Robin Frijns. The team had previously announced that it had extended the contract with Sebastien Buemi.

"I am delighted to have signed with Envision Racing," says Joel Eriksson. "This is a big moment in my career that I have been working towards for some time. I am very grateful to the team for their trust and can't wait to start my first full season in Formula E."

Eriksson made his Formula E debut at the 2021 Puebla E-Prix for Dragon Racing (now DS Penske) after Nico Müller left the team in the middle of the season. The Swede was then a reserve driver for Jaguar and drove for the Jaguar customer team Envision at the 2024 Berlin E-Prix. Ninth place in Sunday's race in the German capital is his best result in the electric series to date.

Envision relies on experience and adaptability

The Swede is a more experienced driver than one might initially expect. Years of working in the simulator and time on the track in Gen2 and Gen3 cars have made Eriksson someone who knows the processes within Formula E inside out. That's precisely why Envision Racing team boss Sylvain Fillipi is relying on the 27-year-old: "Given Joel's extensive knowledge and experience working with Jaguar on the simulator, we are confident that he will deliver the right results for us."

Although Eriksson already has racing experience, it is not uncommon in Formula E for new regular drivers to struggle. Talents who hit the ground running like Taylor Barnard are the exception in the electric racing series. Fillipi wants to make it easy for Eriksson and put a lot of effort into the necessary preparation: "We will do everything we can to give him a good start."

Berlin E-Prix 2024 as a springboard

We last saw the new Envision regular driver in a full Formula E race at the 2024 Berlin E-Prix. At the time, he was one of many rookies replacing the regular drivers due to a WEC clash. Envision was already in a performance slump at the time. This made the points Eriksson scored with his 9th place finish all the more surprising.

Franz Jung, CEO of Envision Racing, cites this performance in the German capital as the reason for the promotion: "We are very happy and proud to welcome Joel to Envision Racing. Joel impressed us last season in Berlin, and we look forward to building on that as he begins his new adventure as a full-time driver."

Robin Frijns was a top performer in Formula E for a long time, and filling his shoes will be a challenge for Eriksson. Above all, however, the driver change offers Envision Racing the opportunity to build on past successes with a breath of fresh air.