Lucas di Grassi holds the record for victories in the electric single-seater championship. This year, the Brazilian returns to ABT and is a member of the ‘Tribo 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 career.
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 record 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 for ABT, the German team that returned to competition in 2023 after a sabbatical year in 2022), Lucas di Grassi, after racing for 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 has a special relationship with the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez (victories in 2017 and 2019, and 3rd place in 2023!), but this year he retired on lap 2 of the race, which had 37 laps, due to problems with the Mahindra M10Electro from ABT Cupra.
«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 hardware development 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 maybe achieving some podiums», he assured. At the end of the season, an end to the two-year relationship between ABT Cupra and Mahindra, but the name of the next supplier of the German-licensed, Spanish-supported electric car team is still unknown.
Lucas di Grassi, who has 31-year-old Swiss driver Nico Müller as his teammate, doesn’t 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 has facilitated our affirmation, but the truth is that we have never stopped progressing technologically, and we have always maintained the quality of the drivers, with several of them in action in the championship for many seasons. And during this period, we had three cars, with power and speed always increasing, which made the competition and driving increasingly demanding», he explained.
En 2027, el nuevo monoplaza (Gen4), que se presenta como mucho más rápido. Según el brasileño, la Fórmula E debe mantenerse, en su mayoría, en circuitos urbanos, debido a la posibilidad de adaptar la potencia del sistema eléctrico a la especificidad de cada carrera. «El conservadurismo de la FIA debe combatirse con ideas innovadoras. La tecnología nos permite este tipo de enfoque», explicó el piloto, quien espera mantenerse en la categoría después de su retiro, una decisión que se remite al momento en que deje de sentirse competitivo. «En el deporte del automovilismo, he hecho todo lo que tenía que hacer. Fórmula 1, Resistencia… Cuando llegue el momento de parar, lo haré. Después, quiero seguir asociado a la Fórmula E, desempeñando otras funciones. La Fórmula 1 ya no admite más carreras y tenemos potencial para ‘comerle’ mercado», aseguró.
Finalmente, Lucas di Grassi se congratuló con la participación de Cupra en la Fórmula E: «La inversión de la marca en la electrificación del automóvil es enorme y esta inversión le permite acelerar ese proceso, debido a la posibilidad de transferencia tecnológica de la competición a los modelos que produce en serie. Y también tiene la ventaja de ser muy dinámica, a diferencia de lo que sucede con los fabricantes alemanes, lo que abre las puertas al desarrollo de ideas nuevas y audaces para promover el campeonato y la empresa, especialmente entre los jóvenes, para conquistarlos en esta nueva era de la movilidad», concluyó. Este año, en Cupra, entre otras novedades, se introduce el Tavascan, un modelo de gama alta con motores eléctricos en lugar de térmicos.
