Opel’s 1901 win shapes path to Formula E era

Opel recalls its 1901 Königstuhl win as it prepares for Formula E entry in 2026/27, linking early racing roots with its electric motorsport strategy.

125 years ago, on March 31, 1901, Heinrich Opel won the Königstuhl hill climb — a moment that marked the beginning of the brand’s entire motorsport history and now connects directly to its future in Formula E.

The race near Heidelberg was more than a local competition. The 4.5-kilometre route, with a 450-metre elevation gain and gradients of up to 16%, tested both engineering and endurance. Opel approached it pragmatically: the car was stripped of unnecessary parts to reduce weight, while improvised elements such as leather side panels helped lower air resistance. Heinrich Opel completed the climb in 23 minutes, leaving his rivals behind. Equally notable, he drove the same car to and from the event — around 180 kilometres at an average speed of 45 km/h, an impressive figure at the time.

This success was not an isolated case. In 1902, Opel repeated the victory at Königstuhl, this time with an Opel-Darracq, reflecting a new technical boost from its cooperation with French manufacturer Alexandre Darracq. By 1921, the brand had moved into a different performance league: Fritz von Opel won one of the opening races at Berlin’s AVUS circuit, reaching an average speed of over 128 km/h — a remarkable achievement for that era.

In the decades that followed, Opel established itself on the international motorsport stage. In 1982, Walter Röhrl and Christian Geistdörfer secured the World Rally Championship title in an Opel Ascona 400, notably with a rear-wheel-drive car during a period dominated by all-wheel-drive competitors. In 1996, Manuel Reuter won the International Touring Car Championship in the Calibra V6 4x4, while the brand continued to compete in endurance and circuit racing in the years that followed.

Today, this legacy is shifting into an electric dimension. Since 2021, Opel has been running the ADAC Opel e-Rally Cup — the world’s first electric rally one-make series — featuring the Corsa Rally Electric with a 50 kWh battery and 100 kW output. From 2026, it will be replaced by the more powerful Mokka GSE Rally, delivering up to 280 hp and developed under the new FIA eRally5 regulations.

The next step is entry into the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship from the 2026/27 season. Opel is forming a factory team and joining the GEN4 era, where cars are expected to reach up to 600 kW and use all-wheel drive. This move follows a clear trajectory — from early experiments with lightweight machines on mountain roads to high-performance electric racing at a global level.

What began as a single victory on a narrow road to Königstuhl has grown into a long-term direction for the brand — now defined by fully electric motorsport.