The official announcement that Mitch Evans is Opel's star signing for its first Formula E campaign brings down the curtain on one of this year's most open paddock secrets.

Evans put pen to paper back in the spring, with The Race first reporting the deal soon after. Since that time, Evans has been seen on several occasions by rival manufacturers testing the Stellantis Gen4 development model after being released by Jaguar to get some experience of the new car this summer.

The driver with the highest number of Formula E wins (16) will join the already announced Theo Pourchaire in the Opel GSE Formula E team, which is essentially a start-up team.

It is running with its own licence which will mean it is the first Stellantis operation not to run in conjunction with independent service providers such as MSG (Maserati and Citroen) or Virgin, Techeetah and Penske (DS).

Opel is presently recruiting for several senior positions after signing up former Porsche sportscar team manager Francis Shammo in April.

But while its experience in some quarters is not as great as its Formula E competitors in the often super quirky all-electric world championship, Opel does have the benefit of a mainlined test and development push via a completely separate Stellantis Motorsport test team.

"This is absolutely a positive thing, believe me," said Opel Motorsport director and team principal Jorg Schrott when asked about that cohesiveness being such a specific positive.

"We have a very good engineering team together there, and the base work has to be done as one team, and the more input you get, also from all those good drivers, they always give you always a little bit different input and this is helping to push the whole programme forward.

"This brings the whole thing forward. To me, it's absolutely positive. And again, we are backing definitely on the strong experience of Stellantis over the last decade too."

Where else could Evans have gone?

There was an inevitability of Evans moving on from Jaguar ever since two very fractious season finales in 2024 and 2025, both at London Excel.

On each occasion, a seething Evans vented furiously at his team over what he believed were messed up chances for him to gain a long-awaited title in 2024 and a strong result in 2025 at the end of a difficult season.

Evans was not an innocent party in either of those flashpoints and some in the team internally distanced themselves from his forthright opinions on those occasions. Others openly pointed the finger at him, particularly in 2024 when he and team-mate Nick Cassidy were head-to-head against Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein.

When James Barclay gave his notice to leave the team in the early summer of 2025 for McLaren's Hypercar programme, and with a new technical director in Theophile Gouzin also coming in last December, Evans's position in the team felt like it was coming to a natural end after a decade of largely successful campaigns.

Without Evans's drive and ability to squeeze out wins and results, Jaguar would have been highly unlikely to have claimed the manufacturers' and teams' championships in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

Since 2016 he saw off highly rated team-mates in Adam Carroll, Nelson Piquet and Sam Bird, and was reasonably evenly matched with countryman Cassidy, although was ultimately let down by reliability and mistakes in their second season together last year.

But Evans's stock has always been high, and righty so. And prior to his deal with Opel being signed in April, the 32-year-old had strong offers from at least two other manufacturers.

One of them is known by The Race to have been from an ambitious Lola, while Porsche also definitely had talks with Evans's representatives, Mark Webber and Matthieu Michel, but it is understood ultimately a firm offer was not forthcoming. Conversations were also held with Nissan.

Another plus for Evans is the possibility of a future sportscar drive with Peugeot. Although this will not happen in 2027, Evans's deal, which is believed to be for two years plus an option for a third, may mean Stellantis gives him the chance for a drive alongside former team-mate Cassidy - who will continue to do a double programme next season.

Can Opel 'dream team' win on debut?

"We have secured our dream team," said Schrott upon the formal announcement of Evans arriving.

It's a snappy soundbite but one which Schrott might just be proved right on next season. Evans is joining as a major ruleset change takes place, meaning his experience in developing the Gen2 and Gen3 Jaguars, which were successful, is a key positive for Opel.

There is also a vibe with some other manufacturers that Stellantis will have an advantage with its experience of how to work certain control systems in relation to the active differential off the front powertrain in particular.

Stellantis's experience with the Citroen World Rally Championship programme and Opel's own concurrent electric rally project - the ADAC Opel Electric Rally Cup - is where that new Formula E urban legend has brewed from. But more than that, those that have attended the recent Gen4 testing indicate that the Stellantis's car appears very well sorted indeed.

Maybe that is what has supercharged Opel's optimism so much.

"Now the Opel family and Mitch are taking this next step together. In doing so, we are sending a clear message: we are joining the world championship to challenge at the front," added Schrott.

That's some nice early fighting talk. Yes, Citroen has a season of racing together but that team has its own recalibration to achieve after a messy off-track scenario with its actual ownership of the MSG licence holding company, a relocation of technical staff from Monaco to Paris, and the tragic death of team principal Cyril Blais last month.

All of that will mean at least a healthy competition between the two Stellantis brands, something which could help it repeat its aura with DS in Gen2, where it won titles and many races with Jean-Eric Vergne and Antonio Felix da Costa.

Evans himself said that "after 10 years with a manufacturer, it was time for me to take on a fresh challenge".

"The leap to the Gen4 cars represents the perfect moment to start something new," he said.

"I immediately felt how much energy and passion Opel is putting into the Formula E project. The team isn't just coming into the series to compete, Opel is here to win, and that's exactly what I aspire to."

Seeing Evans in anything other than theJaguar logo overalls feels a bit strange right now.

But it feels already that the retina-bedazzling dayglow of the Opel brand will reflect well from the very start of Formula E's equally bright new era.