Citroen boss Cyril Blais has proposed a shake-up to Formula E’s Pit Boost format, suggesting teams should be given the freedom to decide how much energy they want to take on during pitstops.
The all-electric championship introduced fast-charging technology from the 2024-25 season, with one race of each double-header featuring a mandatory Pit Boost stop.
While the concept added another strategic element, as drivers can head to the pitlane at any point within a certain window, the pitstop itself remains tightly controlled. The cars must be charged for exactly 30 seconds, while the energy increase is also fixed at 3.85kWh or 10% of the battery capacity.
The Pit Boost format hasn’t proved universally popular among fans, although the initiative remains important for the road car industry to allay lingering range anxiety regarding electric vehicles.
As Formula E and the FIA work towards finalising a new sporting format for the Gen4 era, Blais believes the Pit Boost rule could also be fine-tuned to allow for more variation.
Formula E Pit Boost
Photo by: FIA Formula E
Although the idea wasn’t conceived by him, the Citroen chief suggested that teams should be allowed to choose between shorter stops with less energy or longer recharges with a bigger energy gain.
“It’s a Pit Boost, but everybody gets the same amount of energy,” Blais told Motorsport. “One thing that we were thinking of was having different lengths of Pit Boost.
“At the minute, everybody’s got a Pit Boost and everybody’s got the same amount of energy. But what about if you could choose to stay longer but have more energy, or shorter and less energy?
“[Under the current format] everybody stops, everybody puts in the same time, so if everybody is doing the same lap time, then everybody circulates [in] the same [position].”
Striking the right balance
In essence, the idea floated by Blais concerns how much ‘fuel’ should be added to the car. A shorter pitstop could hand a driver track position, but leave them vulnerable to attacks from other cars. Conversely, a driver could drop down the order with a longer pitstop, but take advantage of the extra energy to claw back the lost time.
Similar strategic trade-offs are common in sportscar racing. At the most recent of the World Endurance Championship in Spa, BMW claimed its maiden Hypercar win by short-fuelling the #20 M Hybrid V8 early on and consolidating its position with a well-timed safety car.
Ultimately, Blais wants to ensure that Formula E continues to offer exciting wheel-to-wheel battles, while avoiding races becoming overly artificial or too hard for fans to follow.
Even under the current format, races featuring Pit Boost only include a single Attack Mode activation, while standard races require drivers to take Attack Mode twice.
Jean-Eric Vergne, Citroen Racing
Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images
Starting with the 2026-27 season, Formula E intends to introduce Pit Boost in all full-length races, as part of a wider shake-up to the sporting format.
While varying Pit Boost usages could be counterintuitive towards the goal of making races simpler to follow, eliminating the minimum pitstop time could create more natural racing scenarios and greater strategic divergence.
Asked what kind of sporting format he would like to see next season, Blais said: “What I’d like to see is that we have an exciting format and we engage fans. This is where we are at the crossroads for Gen4. We need to find the right balance.
“In Gen3, sometimes we got it really right and we had very exciting races. Sometimes, I think we don’t get it absolutely right when we see those crazy peloton races, which I personally feel is not right for Formula E.
“So, I think we just have to be able to show and broadcast the performance of the Gen4 car, which would be a huge step in performance, but at the same time keeping the DNA of Formula E, but without going to extreme energy-saving, because it makes the race a bit artificial – and Pit Boost and Attack Mode and this and that. You just have to keep a format and let the product mature and people get used to it.”
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