David Coulthard has driven an all-wheel-drive Formula E Gen4 prototype around the streets of Monte Carlo and emerged describing the experience as a moment that will reset the standards Formula E drivers are measured against.
The 13-time Formula 1 race winner, a two-time Monaco Grand Prix winner in 2000 and 2002, tested the next-generation car on the same circuit where he banked two of the biggest results of his F1 career. He climbed out of the cockpit out of breath and laughing, before composing himself for the camera.
"That is well the most acceleration I've ever had by Monte Carlo and I won here twice," Coulthard said. "Really, really impressive. Imagining where I've just driven it to where the actual drivers will take it, these guys are about to experience something that no one has ever experienced in racing. The four-wheel drive, the acceleration. Yeah, I'm a bit speechless, actually. I'm also out of breath because I'm 55."
The Gen4 car is built to a roughly 1,000-kilogram minimum weight with a peak system output of around 600 kilowatts, the equivalent of about 800 horsepower in combustion-engine terms. It introduces permanent four-wheel drive, fed through a front-axle electric motor in addition to the existing rear powertrain, and represents the biggest single technical leap Formula E has taken since the all-electric series launched in 2014.
Coulthard was clear that the comparison to the outgoing Gen3 car is not a simple step.
"You cannot really compare Gen3, Gen4," he said. "Gen3 is state-of-the-art for its time, but just the movement of the car, a lot more loose on the rear, having the permanent four-wheel drive. Every exit, it's a acceleration like you've never experienced. Where you still have the similarities to a race car is on braking. You have that pitch and movement. At apex, you obviously have what the limit of the grip is. The tyre will only give you a certain level of grip, but once you've got through the apex, you're putting the power and you think it can take more. It can take more. And then you realise it can take everything. And that's something which is just not normal. So, it's redefining what a race car can be."
"First time I went through the tunnel, there's a scene in Star Wars where everything goes warp speed," Coulthard said. "I've been through that tunnel hundreds of thousands of times and suddenly the lights are doing that and I'm braking in the middle of the tunnel as I'm trying to figure out where the car is. So I've got to say, you've done a great job."
He stressed that the test gave him only a first impression of a system the race drivers will eventually be pushing to its limits. The only previous four-wheel-drive racing car he had driven was a small rallycross machine "which has got nowhere near the performance levels" of the new package.
"When you have a car which is around 1,000 kilos with 600 kilowatts of power, which is just over 800 horsepower in old money, that's an impressive getaway," he said.
Formula E will introduce the Gen4 platform for the 2026-27 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship season. The series has spent the past two years testing the chassis, motor and battery package under varying loads, and team development continues through the summer test programme. The current 2025-26 campaign, running on the Gen3 Evo car, returns to the streets of Shanghai next, with the championship a tight Monaco-cycled fight between Oliver Rowland, Pascal Wehrlein, Nick Cassidy and Antonio Felix da Costa as the season passes the halfway mark.
