Fortescue Zero has acquired the Penske Formula E operation and plans to enter the 2026/27 season as the championship’s first Australian-owned team, using Jaguar GEN4 power.
Fortescue Zero has acquired the Penske Formula E operation in a major team change ahead of Formula E’s new GEN4 era.
The engineering and energy technology company intends to take over the entry from the start of the 2026/27 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, subject to approval from Formula E Operations and the FIA.
Crucially, this is not simply another company adding its name to the grid. Fortescue has bought the existing Penske operation, ending the Penske identity’s uninterrupted involvement in Formula E while carrying the team itself into a new chapter.
If approved, the new outfit will become Formula E’s first Australian-owned team and will race with a Jaguar GEN4 powertrain, according to the official Formula E announcement.
Fortescue Zero takes control of Penske’s Formula E operation
Fortescue Zero already has deep links with electric motorsport.
The company has supplied Formula E’s PIT BOOST technology and has an established technical relationship with Jaguar TCS Racing. Its engineers have worked across battery systems, charging and high-performance electrification long before Fortescue decided to put its own team on the grid.
That makes this considerably more than a branding exercise.
Fortescue is moving from technology supplier to competitor while acquiring an established race operation rather than attempting to build an entirely new Formula E team from scratch. The company’s own announcement describes the new operation as a customer team.
No driver line-up was announced.
Penske name exits after a Formula E run stretching back to 2014
The change also closes a significant chapter in Formula E history.
Jay Penske’s operation was there at the beginning, entering Formula E’s inaugural 2014/15 season as Dragon Racing. The team later competed through several identities before becoming DS PENSKE for the GEN3 era.
Formula E currently records the Penske operation with 165 race starts, six victories and 22 podiums.
The important distinction is that the racing operation itself is not disappearing. Its ownership and identity are changing, allowing one of Formula E’s longest-running team lineages to continue under Fortescue Zero.
Oxfordshire operation keeps a strong British connection
Despite becoming the championship’s first Australian-owned team, Fortescue Zero’s Formula E project retains a significant British engineering connection.
Fortescue acquired Williams Advanced Engineering before rebranding WAE as Fortescue Zero in 2024. The company’s UK headquarters are in Kidlington, Oxfordshire, giving the project an established British engineering base as it moves into full Formula E competition.
That Williams Advanced Engineering heritage is more than a footnote. Fortescue Zero has spent years developing high-performance battery, charging and electrification technology, experience it can now bring directly onto the Formula E grid.
Jaguar power for Formula E’s GEN4 era
Fortescue Zero will become a Jaguar-powered team when GEN4 competition begins in the 2026/27 season.
GEN4 produces 450kW in standard race mode, rising to 600kW in ATTACK MODE and qualifying. Formula E quotes a top speed above 335km/h and approximately 1.8 seconds from 0–100km/h, while permanent all-wheel drive will be available throughout the race.
That represents a considerable step beyond the outgoing GEN3 Evo machinery and gives Fortescue a suitably demanding platform for its first season as a team owner.
We have already seen how significant that performance jump is in our Goodwood Festival of Speed 2026 coverage, where GEN4 made its UK public debut.
A genuine change ahead of Formula E’s new era
Formula E has seen manufacturers and sponsors come and go throughout its history, but this change cuts deeper.
An operation that has been part of the championship since its first season now has new ownership, a new identity and a completely different technical partnership just as Formula E introduces its fourth generation of machinery.
Fortescue Zero is not arriving without experience, either. Its Williams Advanced Engineering heritage, existing Formula E technology work and established relationship with Jaguar mean the company already understands much of the engineering environment it is entering.
The test now moves from supplying technology to racing it.
Tech Torque Verdict
Fortescue Zero taking over Penske is one of the more substantial Formula E team changes in recent years.
There is continuity in the underlying operation, but almost everything around it changes: ownership, identity and powertrain.
For Formula E, it also brings a major electrification engineering business directly onto the grid just as GEN4 dramatically increases the championship’s performance ceiling. The Penske name may be leaving, but the team lineage that began with Dragon Racing in 2014 is heading straight into Formula E’s next era.
For more Formula E coverage, read our report on Pascal Wehrlein sealing his second Formula E world title in London.
