Paddock whispers: News ticker on all the important paddock topics from the Formula E tests in Valencia
Jasmin Fromm
FIA Formula E
Formula E pre-season testing is taking place this week at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. Find out what else is keeping the paddock busy at the circuit in Spain in the latest edition of our "Paddock Whispers" series. We will update this ticker regularly throughout the weekend.
>>> Noda brings Japanese flair to the Jaguar garage
[10/31 | 2:30 pm] Japanese driver Juju Noda, who is getting behind the wheel of Mitch Evans' Jaguar as part of the women's test, has brought a little souvenir from home with her for the test in the electric racing series: There is a small Japanese waving cat in the garage. The little cat has already made friends with the stuffed animal Kiwi, who has been a staple of New Zealander Mitch Evans' Jaguar garage for quite some time.
See you tomorrow @JujuNoda_Racing 👀 pic.twitter.com/RKIKQPBvyw
— Jaguar TCS Racing (@JaguarRacing) October 30, 2025
>>> Cupra Kiro spreads Halloween cheer
[10/31 | 11:00 am] Friday, 31 October 2025, is not only the date of the Formula E Women's Test, but also Halloween. Dan Ticktum and Pepe Marti's team took this as an opportunity to hand out sweets. The team did not just distribute sweet treats to its own staff. On social media, other teams are showing individually selected and personalised sweets they received from the American team.
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>>> Necessity is the mother of invention: Ticktum finds a "plank solution"
[10/30 | 4:40 pm] During the lunch break between the two tests on Thursday, Dan Ticktum, driver at Kiro, appears to have been responsible for delivering coffee to his team. The Brit was spotted carrying around ten coffee cups to his team. He used a rather unusual approach: he balanced the cups on a piece of wood he had found. A creative solution, you have to give him that!
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>>> Porsche bids farewell to Felix da Costa without any hard feelings: "There is a door always open for you"
[10/30 | 11:20 am] Contrary to speculation in various media outlets, there is no bad blood between Porsche and Antonio Felix da Costa after the Portuguese driver left the German manufacturer following three years together. "The last call was like, there's a door always open for you here. We were trying to do the best for you, and no hard feelings," Felix da Costa revealed to Racingnews365. "So I was really happy with that last final call with with them, when everything was sorted. I can't judge any of them. They are still a winning team. Just the way they want to operate is not the way I want to operate. So I can't point fingers and say they are not good at their jobs. That's not true."
>>> Cyril Blais (Citroen): "We still have some ground to cover"
[10/30 | 10:55 am] "We decided to sign two rookies this year," jokes Citroen team boss Cyril Blais in an interview with e-Formula.news. "Obviously a very strong lineup, very happy and excited to have Nick and JEV with us and obviously they're pushing the team and helping the team moving forward because the reality is we still have some ground to cover."
"Last year (as Maserati MSG Racing), we didn't perform the way we wanted and not everything will be resolved in six weeks. You know, so it's a lot of works, a lot... Habits you know and things to install and to develop but they're absolutely the right pairing to do so and they've been pushing us quite a lot."
>>> Mechanical problem caused Barnard's accident on Monday
[10/30 | 10:30 am ] "So far, things are going pretty well," says DS Penske driver Taylor Barnard, giving a positive assessment of the test so far in an interview with e-Formula.news. "Of course, I did some work in the simulator before I arrived here."
He reports that his accident on Monday afternoon was not a driving error: "The first day didn't go according to plan; we had a mechanical defect in the car, which caused us to lose a set of tyres and quite a bit of time. But on Tuesday and Wednesday, I was very happy with the progress we made. We took the right steps and achieved a good pace."
>>> Nico Müller satisfied with the first three days of testing
[10/30 | 10:15 am] Nico Müller is very satisfied with how the test drives have gone so far after his first three days with the Porsche works team. "To be honest, we're not really looking at the absolute performance and the timesheets," the Swiss driver told e-Formula.news. "That's a bit of a nice side effect when the performance comes naturally without us focusing too much on it."
"Integration into the team is always an important factor, I think much more so in Formula E than in other series,’ Müller continued. ‘Because working with the race engineer and performance engineer is extremely important here in order to get the small details right."
>>> Tickets for testing are sold out
[29.10. | 4:00 pm] As announced by the Circuit Ricardo Tormo on Wednesday afternoon, tickets for the Formula E test days on Thursday and Friday are now completely sold out. Previously, tickets for individual days were still available. These are now also sold out.
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>>> Formula E announces donation for flood victims
[10/29 | 2:00 pm] Formula E today paid tribute to the victims and communities affected by the devastating floods (DANA) in the Valencia region a year ago. To mark the anniversary, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship held a minute of silence on Wednesday morning to remember those affected and show their solidarity.
As a sign of its ongoing support, Formula E also announced a donation of €25,000 to Solidaridad Sobre Ruedas to support the delivery of 30 refurbished vehicles to families who lost their vehicles in the floods.
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[10/29 | 12:00 pm] As part of this, Andretti driver Nerea Marti attended the Solidaridad Sobre Ruedas Foundation event in her hometown of Valencia on Tuesday, 28 October 2025.
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Due to the floods in the region, last year's Formula E pre-season testing was moved from Valencia to Madrid.
>>> Formula E expects 20,000 spectators in Madrid
[10/29 | 8:45 am] The first Madrid E-Prix, which will take place on 21 March 2026, is already a success for Formula E. At least in terms of spectator interest and ticket sales for the first Spanish race in the electric series since Valencia in 2021.
"Practically all of the tickets that went on sale have been sold," Alberto Longo told our Spanish colleagues at SoyMotor.com. "Now there is a second and later a third phase. We are very pleased with the interest that the race is generating in Spain."
>>> Griffiths: "We had a chance to win"
[10/28 | 1:07 pm] It was one of the unsolved mysteries of last season: Jake Dennis lost a lot of ground in Jakarta after the full course yellow. In an interview with e-Formula.news after the race, he spoke of an unspecified problem with the speed limiter.
Now his team boss Roger Griffiths shed some light on the matter at the team bosses' press conference in Valencia. According to him, there was no technical problem: "We had a chance to win the race in Jakarta. But Jake was confused about which button to press after the yellow phase ended."
>>> Tyre marks: valuable clues, says Charles
[10/28 | 1:05 pm] DS Penske's Phil Charles had been spotted running towards the car of 21-year-old Briton Taylor Barnard after the incident that caused a red flag during Monday afternoon's session when his DS Penske car came to a halt.
Charles revealed during the press conference: “You always learn something from the scene. I like to look at the tyre marks because that can be a real indication what failed and in the order it did. In this case it was nothing too serious, he just had a lock up and went off.“
>>> Gen4: First manufacturer test coming up
[10/27 | 8:05 pm] Spark has already delivered the first Gen4 cars to the registered manufacturers. "We already have the car," confirms Porsche Formula E boss Florian Modlinger in response to a question from e-Formula.news. "The quality checks have also already been carried out. The powertrain is currentöy being tested and the car is currently being built."
"The first test is not that far away," he continues. "It is scheduled in two weeks time in Monteblanco (Circuito Monteblanco in Andalusia, in south-western Spain). It is a collective test, so for all manufacturers – but we will see whether everyone will actually drive."
>>> Noda eagerly anticipates women's test
[10/27 | 1:30 pm] "On a scale of 1 to 10? A 10!" Juju Noda, who will be driving for Jaguar during Friday's women's test, is delighted about the opportunity to test the Gen3 Evo car. The Japanese driver has to completely adjust: ‘Downforce, brakes – it's completely different from Super Formula,’ she describes when asked by e-Formula.news after already driving in the team's simulator.
We met her and her father in the pit lane. Hideki Noda was a racing driver himself and drove three Formula 1 races for Larousse in 1994. "This championship is the future," says father Noda. "Formula E is a class with many outstanding drivers. And that's why I'm so happy for my daughter."
>>> Porsche special livery for the pre-season testing
[10/27 | 12:30 pm] The Porsche team showed up to Valencia on Monday with a special livery. The team later announced the reason for the special livery in a press release: it is the prototype camouflage of the new Porsche Cayenne Electric, which will make its world debut in a few days. As the vehicles will be shipped to Brazil immediately after the tests, where the Sao Paulo E-Prix is scheduled for 6 December, the team will revert to the normal design on Wednesday.
#FeTesting: @PorscheFormulaE will run a special livery in Valencia. All details later on @eFORMELde / @eFORMULAnews #FormulaE #ABBFormulaE pic.twitter.com/t8Yrp6fPxg
- Tobias Wirtz (@tobiw_apex) October 27, 2025
>>> Test race on Tuesday afternoon
[10/26 | 7:40 pm] On Tuesday, 28 October, a special highlight is scheduled for the afternoon at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo: A test race is scheduled to take place at around 14:00 (CET). The race is supposed to be 27 laps long and the pit boost will also be used.
>>> Moving driver intros in season 12?
[10/26 | 7:15 pm] It looks as though the upcoming Formula E season will feature moving driver intros. At least that's what footage from various teams on Sunday suggests, showing drivers sitting on a rolling chair, being pulled by a rope while a camera films them. The result should be exciting!
In case anyone is in any doubt... THIS is how you pull up to a function. 🪑 pic.twitter.com/knVG5QHjN0
— Envision Racing (@Envision_Racing) November 1, 2025
>>> New start numbers for drivers
[10/26 | 6:00 pm] With the start of the new season, several drivers will be competing with new start numbers. One of them is Taylor Barnard, who has switched from McLaren to DS Penske for Season 12. The Briton will be racing in the gold, black and white team livery with the number 77; a number with special meaning for him: Barnard revealed on Instagram that he already wore 77 in his karting days.
View this post on Instagram
In addition to Barnard, Nissan driver Norman Nato will also start the new season with a new number: he will wear the traditional Nissan number 23, while the car of reigning world champion Oliver Rowland will be number 1. Previously, Nato drove under the number 17, a tribute to his late racing driver friend Jules Bianchi, who competed in Formula 1 with the number 17.
>>> Third name above team garage
[10/26 | 5:40 pm] Normally, the names of the drivers who will be getting into the cars on the respective race days can be found above the Formula E teams' garages. These are usually the two main drivers of the team. However, when looking at the garages in Valencia, other names stand out in addition to the names of the two main drivers: the names of the female drivers in the women's test are also noted on the garages.
The names on the garages are a great sign of appreciation for the female drivers.
>>> New Nissan simulator
[10/26 | 3:40 pm] According to FE Notebook, the Nissan team recently put a new simulator into operation. Abbi Pulling, Nissan rookie and simulator driver, was the first to use it to prepare herself and the team for testing in Valencia.
The British driver spent several days at the facility in Viry-Chatillon, south of Paris. On Friday, 31 October, Pulling will finally climb into one of the Nissan cars herself to collect further data for the team as part of the Formula E women's test.
>>> Visitor days on Thursday and Friday
[10/26 | 1:00 pm] On Thursday and Friday, Formula E will also open its doors to fans at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo. On both days, visitors can take a look behind the scenes on pit walk tours and experience the action right on the track.
Two-day tickets are currently completely sold out, but individual tickets are still available via the circuit's official website.
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