The Formula E 'loan' deal that will keep its original missionary winning

Lucas di Grassi has often expressed his upset with the boardroom decision that led Audi to quit Formula E at the close of the most recent 2021 season. Partly that’s because it left the Brazilian, who doesn’t mince his words or emotions, looking for a seat to remain on the grid. But largely, it’s because his connection to the manufacturer runs deep and he fully appreciates the critical role Audi played in reviving his career.  

After occupying the back of the Formula 1 field in 2010 at Virgin Racing in a car that was massively underfunded and never set foot in a windtunnel, he spent the next year as the unsung official Pirelli tyre tester. It was a 2012 one-off for his home World Endurance Championship event at Sao Paulo for Audi, in which he set fastest lap before joining team-mates Tom Kristensen and future boss Allan McNish on the podium, that had him don race overalls bearing the four rings for the first time.  

"I have to say, I felt myself a very unfortunate decision from Audi from leaving the series,” he says. “It's very sad to leave a team, to leave a family. With Audi, in the end, there was 10 years together. My career after Formula 1 was actually in a very downhill [run] and Audi gave my career back in terms of professional motorsports.” 

A hat-trick of Le Mans 24 Hours podiums headlined the successful partnership in sportscars. In that time, di Grassi became one of the very earliest employees of a then-unknown, fledgling company registered under ‘Formula E Operations’. He was the ambassador for the series and its disruptive electric dream. That’s a role he’s never relinquished in the sense of pushing the message, although he did formally end his ties to sign for the Abt-fronted entry for an inaugural season in 2014-15.  

Once Nick Heidfeld had flown into the Beijing barriers in 2014 in a scary last-lap collision with Nicolas Prost - an incident Formula E co-founder Alejandro Agag acknowledges as an inadvertent massive coup in terms of getting people talking about the series - it was entirely fitting that di Grassi should pick up the pieces to become the first-ever E-Prix victor. 

His bitter rivalry with Sebastien Buemi, when titles were decided by points for fastest lap, came to define the early part of the championship before he was crowned in 2016-17. His two wins and five second places played a major part in Audi winning the teams’ title a year later.  

Di Grassi took the first-ever Formula E race win in the 2014 Beijing E-Prix and has been on the grid for every race since

Photo by: Motorsport Images

Di Grassi has contested every one of the 84 races to date, a feat matched only by Sam Bird. All have been with Audi backing. That is until the 2022 season kicks off in Saudi Arabia on 28 January. There he will qualify for fellow Monaco resident Venturi Racing for the first time. 

Remaining part of the Audi stable in anticipation of playing a part in its WEC hypercar programme that will debut in 2023 (which he may well still do, but more on that later…) was a safe banker. Changing tack and fronting its nascent electric Dakar Rally programme wasn’t. 

Staying put in Formula E has always been his main goal, even if it potentially meant a year on the sidelines while he waited for the 2022 driver market to erupt when many of his colleagues’ contracts elapse.  

He continues: “To change completely my scope and my passion and the experience I acquired in the championship would not be the best solution in the long term. I even considered taking a gap year, if I didn't find a competitive team in season eight and coming back in season nine with another manufacturer or another entry.” 

"It was every time more clear that if I would have any chance of trying to win the championship in season eight, the correct team would be Venturi - to go with a Mercedes powertrain that showed that the car is extremely competitive" Lucas di Grassi

As last term wore on, his chances increased but with the caveat that he wasn’t going to join a team that was there to make up the numbers. Race wins are a must, a second title is the ultimate end goal. As his representatives opened talks with numerous teams, di Grassi rated his prospects of remaining as “80%” then “90” and finally “95”. Now it’s a dead cert thanks to Venturi.  

Although Berlin E-Prix victor Norman Nato, who was also penalised out of podiums in Rome (disqualified for energy overuse) and Valencia (five-second reprimand for knocking Alex Lynn into a spin), has had to make way to accommodate di Grassi, it appears a good fit. 

This is a squad that has made sound progress last season to finish seventh. Two underwhelming years paying an expensive Felipe Massa “ended the [2019-20] season with quite some difficulties in a slump”, says team principal Susie Wolff. Promoted reserve driver Nato was there to establish a decorated career, not sign off on one as his Brazilian predecessor did.  

Venturi has become a respected FE competitor, winning twice last season as Mortara challenged for the title

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

The 2021 points runner-up Edoardo Mortara, di Grassi’s new team-mate, was a brilliant winner in Puebla and were it not for his scary crashes in Saudi Arabia and Berlin, he would likely have been the newly crowned champion and deservedly so.  

After three years with Wolff at the helm, Venturi is an established motorsport team with new owners and commercial appeal. It’s a name no longer most closely associated with quirky supercars of the 1990s.  

Di Grassi’s experience and his sheer pace, which some had doubted but was still absolutely clear last season, will help continue the current upward trajectory. He is as tough as anyone in Formula E for pushing a team forward to ensure it keeps up with his work rate and passion. 

But undeniably, the biggest draw to Venturi is currently its Mercedes powertrain. It's the motor that guided Nyck de Vries and the factory squad to a drivers’ and teams’ title double last year. Di Grassi, who scored two victories last season, now has the tools desired to increase his current total of 12 E-Prix triumphs. 

He says: “I was looking of course into many options in the beginning of the season when Audi decided to leave the championship. And, as the season progressed, it was every time more clear that if I would have any chance of trying to win the championship in season eight, the correct team would be Venturi - to go with a Mercedes powertrain that showed that the car is extremely competitive. 

“The combination of having a strong team-mate, a stable team, a good powertrain and good management and good methodology – I'm very convinced that this was the best option. 

“Where I am in my career, I have another two, three years at the top of my game. So, my priority is to win races and win championships, I have not much time to lose.” 

However, Mercedes has now announced that 2022 will mark its last season in Formula E as a works entry. Venturi Racing will remain for the Gen3 regulations kicking off the following term but must now broker a new powertrain deal. 

Di Grassi will line up in Venturi colours next year with Mercedes power

Photo by: Venturi

While details over the length of di Grassi’s freshly inked contract haven’t been divulged, in that context it’s logical to think of his move as the equivalent of a football player going out on loan for a season. It’s a one-shot deal with that Mercedes asset.  

Those terms would allow di Grassi, who this week has been enjoying driving a 1984 Audi Sport Quattro S1 Group B rally car, to return to the manufacturer for its new WEC programme should the offer materialise.  

Abt has every intention of entering the fold again for Gen3. If that does come to pass, it’s incredibly difficult to envisage the team without di Grassi. So, if Biermaier does recall the services of his driver, it puts a short and defined timeline on di Grassi’s effective loan signing at Venturi Racing

But there’s another major factor at play and one that comes back to di Grassi’s Formula E debut. Even though Audi has decided to wave farewell to the championship, its long-time race team affiliate Abt certainly hasn’t.  

It attempted to take over the Audi licence direct from the manufacturer to continue in the series for 2022. When the deadline for that deal elapsed over the winter, the franchise returned to central Formula E ownership. Abt then sought to buy its way back in again. 

The entry was coming along soundly, with di Grassi nailed on to remain as a driver. That was his preferred option, as he repeatedly made clear. But a major commercial deal with an American TV entity, the only way Abt could make the costs stack up, was reneged upon. The coffers never materialised. But under the leadership of chief executive officer Thomas Biermaier, Abt has every intention of entering the fold again for Gen3. 

If that does come to pass, it’s incredibly difficult to envisage the team without di Grassi, who will then be heading towards his 39th birthday. So, if Biermaier does recall the services of his driver, it puts a short and defined timeline on di Grassi’s effective loan signing at Venturi Racing. 

Both parties will be hoping that the season to come will be a match for Romelu Lukaku’s temporary but prolific move to West Brom for 2012-13. Not Danny Drinkwater’s switch from Cheslea to slumping and duffing up team-mates in training at Aston Villa. 

Mortara joined di Grassi on the podium as the Brazilian scored Audi's final win in Berlin

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images