The upcoming Gen3 Evo era will, it turns out, be its first and final season as Formula E’s chassis of choice. The 2024/2025 season will also be the last for the all-electric championship’s title sponsor and tyre supplier’s tenure, Hankook.
The tyre manufacturer that took over from Michelin at the beginning of the 2022/2023 season has created the spec, all-weather rubber tyres used by the Formula E grid for only two seasons as of now, with the 2024/2025 season being its third and final as lead tyre supplier.
Its predecessor had seemingly mastered the art of Formula E supply tyres after a fruitful eight years as the series’ technical partner and tyre supplier.
It has been announced, however, that Hankook will title sponsor the Mexico City, Shanghai and Berlin E-Prix weekends during its final season in its current position.
The agreement does indeed correspond to the original deal Hankook and Formula E signed, which included five races across three weekends for each season. This saw Hankook play the part of title sponsor at the Mexico City, Rome and London rounds in the 2022/23 season and the Mexico City, Portland and London rounds in the 2023/24 campaign.
A vocal few teams and drivers will be somewhat relieved to see the back of Hankook in Formula E following a raft of complaints and overall dissatisfaction from drivers and teams since taking over as tyre supplier.
It’s known that Formula E’s very nature does provide a tricky brief for tyre manufacturers to fulfil with one type of tyre utilised in all weather conditions – the opposite of the likes of Formula 1.
Japanese firm Bridgestone has been bestowed with the honour of taking over from Hankook from the 2025/26 campaign onwards, which coincides with the debut of the Gen4 regulations. It’ll be Formula E’s third tyre manufacturer in four years but the championship, and its competitors, will sincerely hope it signals a new technical dawn for all involved!
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