After just one season in Formula E, Lucas di Grassi will leave the Venturi racing team again and compete for Mahindra from next season
There is movement in the Formula E driver market: Lucas di Grassi will leave Venturi after just one season and drive for Mahindra from 2023 when Formula E’s Gen3 era begins. The Indian manufacturer’s works team made the announcement on Friday.
Di Grassi replaces Alexander Sims at Mahindra, who wants to leave Formula E and focus on his GT racing commitments for BMW in the future. Di Grassi’s teammate next season will be Oliver Rowland.
“Joining Mahindra represents a new challenge in my career and the timing couldn’t be better: With the introduction of Gen3 in the ninth season of the Formula E World Championship, everyone is starting from scratch,” di Grassi was quoted as saying in a Mahindra press release.
Di Grassi wants to win the World Championship with Mahindra
“The short-term goal is to win races and the long-term goal is to help Mahindra win the World Championship and become an icon in electric racing worldwide. We will build an exciting and sustainable future together,” di Grassi added.
The 2016/17 season champion, who is set to contest his 100th Formula E race and win his 1,000th championship point at this weekend’s Seoul E-Prix, had only joined Venturi before the current season following Audi’s exit.
With his switch to Mahindra, the connection to his long-time team Abt is also revived. The racing team from Kempten will return to Formula E in 2023 after a year off and will race with power units from Mahindra.
Long-standing relationship with Abt revives
“The seven-year association with Abt, during which we won the championship together, will give us a good springboard – the team will be using Mahindra’s drivetrain and that extra data and my close relationship with the engineers will benefit us,” di Grassi hopes.
There is great joy at Mahindra over the signing of such a renowned driver. “Lucas is undoubtedly one of the greatest Formula E drivers in the history of the sport – the statistics and achievements speak for themselves – but for us his appeal goes far beyond that,” said team principal Dilbagh Gill.
“We are the only team to have gone CO2-free from the outset and it is fundamental to our existence that we are passionate and knowledgeable about driving technological developments in electric mobility both on and off the track.”
“We believe Lucas is perfectly positioned to do this and we are ready to bring him on board our ground-breaking Gen3 programme in the coming weeks,” Gill continued. “Our goal is to become world champions with Mahindra and Lucas’ experience and drive will be instrumental in achieving this. “
