Lucas di Grassi holds the record for wins in the electric single-seater championship. This year, the Brazilian returns to ABT and is a member of the ‘Tribe Cupra’
He won the first ePrix in the history of Formula E, winning the start of the category on September 13, 2014, at the Olympic Park in Beijing, China, in an Audi Sport ABT car. He competed in the Formula 1 World Championship with Virgin in 2010 and, between 2012 and 2016, he was with Audi in the World Endurance Championship (WEC), with two third places in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and two victories in his record.
We talk about Lucas di Grassi, a 39-year-old Brazilian driver who regularly visits Portugal because his wife has a house in Lisbon. And who has a handful of records in the electric single-seater championship, which he won in 2017: in 116 participations, 13 victories, a maximum he shares with Swiss driver Sébastien Buemi, and 40 podiums!
Yesterday, in Mexico City, at the first ePrix of Season 10 of Formula E (the 117th in the history of the championship, and the 100th of ABT, the German team that returned to competition in 2023 after a sabbatical year in 2022), Lucas di Grassi, after racing with Venturi and Mahindra, reunited with the team he represented between 2014 and 2021 and, now, instead of Audi, has another brand from the VW Group as a partner: Cupra. The Brazilian maintains a special relationship with the Hermanos Rodríguez Autodrome (victories in 2017 and 2019, and 3rd place in 2023!), but this year he retired on lap 2 of the race that had 37 laps, with problems in the ABT Cupra’s Mahindra M10Electro.
“There is no better place to start the season. Fans love races and treat us like stars,” said Lucas di Grassi, who anticipates a very difficult season. “The development of the hardware is frozen by the regulations, but we have improved at the software level, and I think it is possible to get closer to the top teams and become consistent, ensuring points regularly and perhaps achieving some podium finishes,” he assured. At the end of the season, the two-year relationship between ABT Cupra and Mahindra will come to an end, but the name of the next supplier of the team’s electric single-seater with a German license and Spanish support is still unknown.
Lucas di Grassi, who has 31-year-old Swiss driver Nico Müller as his teammate, does not spare praise for the progress of Formula E: “I have been following it since day one. Ten years ago, when it all started, few would have bet that we would reach this dimension! Of course, the electric revolution we see on the streets and roads facilitated our affirmation, but the truth is that we never stopped progressing technologically, and we always maintained the quality of the drivers, with several of them in action in the championship for many seasons. And in this period, we had three single-seaters, with power and speed always increasing, which made the competition and driving increasingly demanding,” he explained.
In 2027, a new car (Gen4) will be introduced, which is presented as much faster. According to the Brazilian, Formula E should remain mostly on city circuits because there is the possibility of adapting the power of the electric system to the specificity of each race. “The conservatism of the FIA has to be fought with innovative ideas. Technology allows us this kind of approach,” explained the driver, who hopes to stay in the category after the end of his career, a decision that he will make when he no longer feels competitive. “In motorsport, I have done everything I had to do. Formula 1, Endurance… When the time comes to stop, I will stop. Then, I want to remain associated with Formula E, performing other functions. Formula 1 no longer allows more races, and we have the potential to ‘eat’ its market,” he assured.
Finally, Lucas di Grassi congratulated Cupra’s involvement in Formula E: “The brand’s investment in the electrification of the car is enormous, and this investment allows it to accelerate this process, due to the possibility of technological transfer from competition to the models it produces. And it also has the advantage of being very dynamic, unlike what happens with German manufacturers, which opens the doors to the development of new, bold ideas to promote the championship and the company, especially among young people, in order to win them over to this new era of mobility,” he concluded. This year, Cupra introduces the Tavascan, a top-of-the-range model with electric motors instead of internal combustion engines, among other novelties.
