Lola has appointed Gerry Hughes as Deputy Team Principal and confirmed that its Formula E race operation has been brought in-house at a new Silverstone headquarters ahead of the GEN4 era.
The announcement, published on 16 October, combines a management appointment with an operating-model change. Hughes will lead operations and sporting matters and oversee the team’s day-to-day running under Team Principal Mark Preston.
Hughes previously served as Team Principal of the NIO Formula E team and worked for Lola as Head of Formula 1 Engineering in 2009. His earlier career also covered touring cars and IndyCar-related engineering. Lola says that experience will support the development of a broader in-house capability rather than a single technical project.
From the 2026/27 season, the entrant will compete as Lola Formula E Team rather than Lola Yamaha ABT Formula E Team. Yamaha remains the technical partner responsible for GEN4 powertrain development, but ABT is no longer included in the published entrant name.
Lola says the name change reflects its decision to internalise race-team activity, streamline work and build expertise for future motorsport programmes. The company did not disclose the transfer terms, staffing changes, facility investment, legal structure or which functions previously delivered by ABT have moved to Silverstone.
That missing detail limits conclusions about the scale of the restructuring, but the confirmed change is material: Lola is increasing direct control over competition operations while retaining Yamaha’s powertrain role. The model separates race-team management from the technical partnership that underpins the car.
The article is linked to the existing MRI profile for the same Formula E operation, whose stored name still reflects the prior Lola Yamaha ABT identity. That profile has no approved logo asset, so none has been invented. No reusable first-party feature-image permission was established.