Two months on from all 20 Formula E drivers uniting to send a bombshell letter to FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem demanding improvements, there are signs of significant change in relationships behind the scenes.

Officiating was at the heart of the drivers' concerns, but recent discussions over the decision-making process seem to be paying off already.

Several Formula E drivers have told The Race anonymously over the last month that they feel the governing body is listening to their concerns.

Meetings between drivers and senior officials at the FIA took place at the Gen4 launch at Paul Ricard last month and at the recent Berlin E-Prix. On both occasions respectful dialogue and progress in some key areas are said to have taken place.

Leading the sessions was the FIA Formula E championship manager Pablo Martino, who told The Race that "if there is something that needs to be put in place, we are ready to with the drivers. And that's what we transferred to them in Paul Ricard".

Martino and other officials, including the current race director for Formula E Marek Hanaczewski, are believed to be putting in place some measures that will make drivers feel more part of the process in some areas of officiating. 

"We had a meeting in Paul Ricard where we presented to them three ideas we had for ensuring that all these concerns they sent to the FIA in the form of a letter were addressed," added Martino.

"I think they were quite happy with those ideas because they believe they are going to work in a good direction. I think, amongst all the officials and the stewards, that we have found some better or more efficient ways to work between us that can help us have more consistency, etc. 

"There is a part for the drivers also to understand what the work of the FIA officials is and what is the difficulty of the work for the stewards, for example, on the decision-making process. We are working towards that."

In addition to that meeting at Paul Ricard, a separate session took place at Berlin, in which some drivers were able to go over some of the incidents from the prior round at Jarama to understand the FIA's approach.

But according to Martino, this is "not the FIA asking them, how do you want us to regulate? It's us asking them what the best way is to improve this - in order for them to feel much more assured that we are applying consistently on decisions".

"It's not something that is going to require a massive change because we were quite robust in our decision-making process and we are quite confident that the stewards apply decisions consistently and in a fair manner." 

Martino added that "afterwards, the driver is in details in some occasions and we don't expect to have agreement on all the decisions that the stewards take because it will never happen 100% that the drivers agree 100% with a decision. They will have different points of view - especially when they have been involved in the incidents".

Driver steward role still a hot topic 

One of the key areas that drivers had major concerns about was the selection of relevant drivers to act as advisors to the stewards at E-Prixs. Those advisors do not make any key decisions, but they consult with the panel of stewards on site at race meetings.

Formula E has used a rotation of ex-professional drivers such as Pedro Lamy, Enrique Bernoldi, Alex Yoong and Paul Belmondo in the past. But the fact these drivers have no experience of Formula E cars or the intricacies of techniques in which they are driven - such as overt lift-and-coasting and managing minimum corner speeds - led to several flashpoints.

One example of this was at the Portland E-Prix in 2024 - when Mitch Evans was penalised for being deemed to have caused an accident with Jake Hughes' McLaren. The driver advisor at that time was 1990s IndyCar racer Johnny Unser. 

Since then Formula E race winner Alexander Sims has occasionally frequented the driver advisor position. But drivers as relevant to FE as Sims who don't have affiliations with manufacturers and aren't too busy with other racing programmes are a rare commodity, and that's clearly an issue for the FIA.

"Every single appointed official in the FIA world championship is appointed for a reason. It's not a random decision, any of them," said Martino.

"So, when we appoint someone as an official, then that person deserves to be an FIA official on a world championship.

"We are appointing people who have massive experience in motorsport. When we talk of stewards, when we talk of race directors, when we talk about pitlane delegates or technical delegates, all the people who are working in the FIA are people who have years of experience in many other championships before getting into an FIA world championship. 

"That's first and that's something that the drivers recognise 100%. With the driver advisors, one of the biggest difficulties in getting experience from drivers is that Formula E, for good or for bad, has had one of the lowest rotations of drivers. 

"I don't want this to sound like an excuse because it's not an excuse.

"[But] many of the drivers who are not competing permanently continue being involved in one of the teams or one of the manufacturers. And, of course, that conflict of interest rules out plenty of drivers from the potential candidates.

"Those drivers who are good candidates… I'm talking about Robin Frijns, Alexander Sims and a few others - because there are not so many, because they have some other driver commitments."

The FIA is known to be looking into possibilities of some ex-drivers being brought back into Formula E in a more permanent capacity, with objectives being outlined for the start of the Gen4 period at the end of the present year.