Another Red Bull junior gets binned from the F1 pathway, lands somewhere else entirely, and quietly starts thriving. Pepe Martí has agreed a contract extension with Cupra Kiro to stay in Formula E, and on the evidence of his debut season, the team would have been mad to let him go anywhere else.
It is not a glamorous headline compared to the grid penalty rows and power unit tokens dominating this week’s build-up to Monza, but it says something uncomfortable about how F1’s junior system chews up talent and spits it out. Martí spent time in the Red Bull pipeline before making the switch from Formula 2 to Formula E at the end of 2025. He did not get a seat on the F1 grid. Formula E got a genuine talent instead.
A Debut Season That Started With Him Upside Down
Let us not pretend this was a fairytale from lights out. Martí’s first Formula E race in São Paulo last December ended with him inverted in one of the sport’s more spectacular accidents, the kind of crash that makes highlight reels for years and makes rookies question their career choices. Not the ideal introduction to an all-electric championship where the margins for error are unforgiving and the walls do not care about your junior formula pedigree.
What followed, though, was the interesting part. Rather than spending the season rattled, Martí adapted fast. By the time the campaign wrapped up he had finished 13th in the drivers’ standings, a solid return for a rookie who had to learn an entirely new discipline on the fly, against a field stacked with drivers who already know how to manage energy deployment and attack modes better than most F1 refugees ever bother to learn.
Two Podiums and a Piece of History
The numbers tell the real story. Martí took two podium finishes across the season, in Monaco and Sanya, and led races along the way. That is not a token highlight for the marketing reel; that is a rookie mixing it with drivers who have been in the series for years. He also became the first Spanish driver to stand on a Formula E podium, a distinction that will matter more to him than most neutral observers, but a genuine marker all the same.
“I’m very excited to continue with Cupra Kiro for the 2026/27 Formula E season. I’ve felt a huge amount of support and trust since joining the team, and together, I think we’ve built something really positive during my rookie year.” – Pepe Martí
He was equally clear that he sees this as the start of something rather than a peak, as reported by RacingNews365.
“Formula E has been an incredible learning experience, and I feel that I’ve grown a lot as a driver over the course of the season. To have achieved top three finishes, led races, and become the first Spanish driver to stand on the Formula E podium is something I’m very proud of, but I also feel like we’re only just getting started.” – Pepe Martí
No Surprise, but Still the Right Call
Nobody in the paddock will pretend this deal is a shock. Martí staying put for a second season, and for the arrival of Formula E’s Gen4 era, has been the expected outcome for a while. Teams do not usually let go of a driver who bagged two podiums and topped it off with a slice of history in his rookie year, whatever crashes preceded it. What matters is that it is now locked in on paper rather than assumed in the paddock rumour mill.
“Cupra Kiro has big ambitions for the future, and I’m excited to be part of the journey for Gen4. I can’t wait to see what we can achieve next season.” – Pepe Martí
One detail conspicuously missing from the announcement: who will be sat in the other Cupra Kiro car alongside him. Team-mate news will presumably follow in its own time, but for now this is squarely Martí’s moment, and the team is happy to let it stay that way.
What This Says About the Junior Ladder
It is worth pausing on why a Red Bull junior alumnus is now the poster boy for a rival electric championship rather than fighting for scraps on the F1 support ladder. Red Bull’s junior programme has never been short of talent; it has been short of seats, patience, and sometimes plain fairness in who gets the next chance. Martí is proof that being cut loose by one of F1’s most ruthless talent factories is not necessarily a career death sentence. Formula E, still building its reputation as a legitimate destination rather than a retirement home or a consolation prize, is doing rather well out of picking up drivers the F1 pyramid decided it did not need.
Whether Martí ever gets another crack at an F1 seat is a different question entirely, and one that increasingly looks unlikely given how crowded the current grid is with its own set of unproven names. But on the evidence of one rookie season, Formula E has landed itself a driver who might make Red Bull’s decision to let him go look shortsighted in hindsight.
