This track – where DS Automobiles won in 2025 – once again allowed the French premium manufacturer to demonstrate the excellent level of performance of its DS E-TENSE FE25 cars during qualifying.

Maximilian Günther, a winner in Jeddah last year, qualified for the final of the duels and just missed out on pole position by a scant 0.111s. So hopes were high for the DS PENSKE team with second place on the grid for the German and fifth for his young British team-mate Taylor Barnard.

This fourth race of the season turned out to be very strategic, with only one Attack Mode (lasting six minutes) instead of the usual two and especially the return of PIT BOOST. This meant that for the first time this year, the drivers had to make a pit stop allowing them to recover an additional 10% of energy. One of the keys to success was taking it at exactly the right moment, while also considering Attack Mode deployment as well as all the other potential race circumstances.

An aggressive strategy from the DS PENSKE team was unfortunately not rewarded. After making an excellent start Maximilian Günther was the first race leader, but he lost several places towards the end and was eventually classified 11th. Taylor Barnard ended up just one position ahead at the flag. Like his team-mate, the young Briton played a starring role at the start of the race before dropping down the order. Although this result allowed him to score one point in the drivers’ and teams’ standings, it in no way reflects the DS E-TENSE FE25’s real level of performance in Saudi Arabia.

Both drivers and the whole team will be eager to show this on Saturday during the fifth race of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship. Once again, the start will take place at night (18:00 CET), and this time the French manufacturer hopes to shine brightly throughout the after-dark encounter.

Taylor Barnard:

“The opening race in Jeddah clearly didn't live up to our expectations, especially after our excellent qualifying. I had to battle a car that wasn’t turning left or right in the same way. That was really hard and very frustrating. The engineers did everything they could in the pits to help me deal with the issue, but to be honest we never got to the bottom of it. Luckily, we get a new set of tyres for tomorrow and perhaps that will be enough to solve this strange problem. On the other hand, we also made some strategic mistakes during the race. But as always, we win and lose together as a team. We’re going to analyse everything carefully and I’m sure we will be able to improve and score more points in the second race tomorrow.”

Maximilian Günther:

“It was a difficult race and obviously not what we hoped for after nearly taking pole position. I got a great start, just like my teammate Taylor, and we were running second and third for a long time while managing our energy. It was looking like a solid race for us right up to the moment when we decided to use our Attack Mode before the PIT BOOST stop. Unfortunately, that didn't turn out to be the right strategy and so we found ourselves in a delicate position that made the second part of the race very tricky. But we’re a team and so we win and lose together. Today was a bad day, but I have total confidence in the entire team. I know we are absolutely capable of turning the situation round, and tomorrow we get the chance to prove it.”