Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

There won’t be many drivers who, when reflecting on their career, can say they developed a love of reading while sitting in a Formula 1 car. Yet for 2016-17 Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi, who was on Renault’s books for much of his rise through junior single-seaters and completed countless straight-line days before testing was massively restricted, it rings true.

“I had a book every day I went testing and I was reading between starts to pass the time,” the Brazilian recalls as we chat ahead of his final outing as a professional racing driver in London.

That his era-straddling experiences are unlikely to be replicated in a simulation-driven age is merely one reason to mark di Grassi’s decision to hang up his helmet and move into a management role with Formula E, the championship with which he is most associated.

As the first driver to truly buy into Alejandro Agag’s groundbreaking concept, he was responsible for developing its original Spark-Renault chassis and memorably won its inaugural race in 2014.

A double retirement at the ExCel (caused by brake and electrical problems) while sporting a commemorative livery on his Abt-run Lola Yamaha machine was an unsatisfactory way to bring down the curtain for di Grassi, who holds records for the most starts (164), podium finishes (42), and is the all-electric championship’s oldest winner, aged 41.

His canny drive in changeable conditions to deliver that final triumph at Shanghai in July, after a four-year wait, stands among the most cherished of his 14 FE wins “because it was so unexpected” and underlined the qualities he has carried throughout his racing life.

Di Grassi has always regarded racing as just one part of his career

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As a self-confessed “nerd”, passionate about technology and engineering, di Grassi likes to understand how things work. He wouldn’t disagree with the observation of former team boss David Hayle that he was always “as interested in engineering the car as driving” – which made him well-suited to contributing columns in Autosport’s Engineering supplements.

An obsession with details and working harder than the competition was always a priority for di Grassi, especially since “I didn’t start being the fastest guy out there”.

“Very few people would have bet that I could have a career ahead when I was in go-karting,” he remarks. “But I tried to understand how to become a better driver and keep learning. Many drivers were more talented than me, but they achieved less because of how much effort they put in.”

“I spoke the language that was required to make the car better" Lucas di Grassi

This desire to understand the car’s workings helped di Grassi refine his feedback and push for particular changes, rather than wait on engineer suggestions. “I spoke the language that was required to make the car better,” he adds, and swiftly doubled down on his strength: “I thought, ‘If I’m better than the others in this area, I should explore it to the maximum.’ That probably gave me an edge.”

That edge was somewhat blunted by uncompetitive machinery since di Grassi upheld a verbal agreement to join Mahindra – made on what proved a mistaken understanding that Dilbagh Gill would remain at the helm – in 2022.

Leaving Venturi, with which he had won in London and “was, technically speaking, a better team to stay with” is, he believes, “the only bittersweet decision I took” during a 12-year Formula E stint in which he was only twice beaten by a team-mate.

A canny set-up call aided his victory over Kubica at Macau in 2005

Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images

A 64-3 points head-to-head over two seasons with Zane Maloney shows that he was still delivering, but di Grassi is frank in admitting that he never expected his Formula E stint to last as long as it has. Had Audi not terminated its World Endurance Championship involvement in 2016, “probably I would have stopped [FE] earlier”.

“I always thought that driving is a part of my career, not my entire life,” he elaborates. “I don’t want to race until I’m 60, I want to do other things. That’s largely why I decided to stop now.”

That his departure coincides with Sebastien Buemi stepping away to focus on his Toyota WEC commitments, meaning no drivers from Formula E’s inaugural event will be on the grid next year, feels appropriate given their intense rivalry did so much to establish the championship as a desirable spectacle to watch. Di Grassi is rightly proud of his accomplishments but, when asked how he wants to be remembered, his priorities are clear.

“I just want to be remembered as somebody that always pushed technology forward and wants to make motorsport a more interesting place,” he states.

Clearly, there’s more to di Grassi’s story than his Formula E accomplishments. It would surprise many to learn that he’s unbeaten at the Thruxton speedbowl, taking a double victory at the 2004 British Formula 3 Championship meeting after persuading Hayle that they should remove his Hitech Dallara’s Sodemo air-filter.

He had identified it as a weak spot during testing, and in qualifying at Snetterton tried an unconventional solution as an alternative means of protecting the engine – women’s tights bought from a shop in Attleborough! Hayle perceived the risk of racing with it too great, although pole suggested the idea had potential.

Late but successful 2008 GP2 stint proved pivotal for his future

Photo by: Gareth Bumstead / Sutton Images via Getty Images

On returning to it at Thruxton, di Grassi duly delivered Renault’s only wins of 2004. “I don’t think it would have happened if we didn’t find these extra tenths from the air filter,” he laughs.

A similar knife-edge choice paid off at Macau in 2005. Prioritising straightline speed over downforce for the mountain section left his Manor Motorsport Dallara unable to shake off Robert Kubica, but the late restart he had been gambling on played perfectly into his hands. Di Grassi duly blasted back past the reigning Formula Renault 3.5 champion to take a famous win over Kubica and rookie Sebastian Vettel.

“We didn’t have the ultimate pace to win, but we played right with the strategy,” he remembers. “I knew there were lots of safety cars and the important part was the restart, not the ultimate pace.”

"They requested full excellence, and they were very blunt. I had a tough time there, but I’m glad. It made me a professional" Lucas di Grassi

Without the financial help that resulted from membership of the Renault Driver Development programme, which placed him at Hitech for 2004, di Grassi is clear that his career would look very different. That’s partly because “I didn’t have the budget to do two F3 seasons and three GP2 seasons”, but also due to Flavio Briatore and Bruno Michel being “extremely demanding”.

“They requested full excellence, and they were very blunt, but I didn’t have any choice [to carry on],” he reflects. “I had a tough time there, but I’m glad. It made me a professional.”

After picking up the scraps left by ASM pair Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil (the only other double winner) to place third in the 2005 F3 Euro Series, di Grassi endured a tough GP2 rookie season with Durango but challenged for the title in 2007 – his first time staying in a championship for a second season. With ART, he delayed Timo Glock’s coronation until the final round.

Sole F1 season with Virgin squad was gruelling, but di Grassi has “zero regrets”

Photo by: Jung Yeon-Je / AFP via Getty Images

He therefore “didn’t want to go back” and viewed GP2 as a closed chapter in 2008, but the campaign proved highly significant later. Di Grassi was parachuted into Agag’s Barwa Addax team after the first three race weekends, finished one point behind runner-up Bruno Senna and would almost certainly have been champion had he started the season.

“We had an amazing year and I became very good friends with Alejandro,” he remembers. “If that hadn’t happened, probably I wouldn’t have started Formula E, and my career would be completely different.”

Both di Grassi and Senna were evaluated by Honda for 2009 before it morphed into Brawn GP and elected to prioritise experience. That major ‘what if?’ followed the Singapore crash scandal, which scuppered hopes of promotion to a race seat at Renault.

Di Grassi instead had to wait until 2010, after placing third again in GP2 in 2009 when offered a free drive by Racing Engineering, to join the F1 grid with the new Manor-run Virgin squad for a season of trials in the Cosworth-powered VR01.

Its fuel tank was famously too small and di Grassi lived on a harsh diet of 1000 calories per day “to the point of getting sick” to reduce his own weight, but doesn’t regret the character-building experience.

“Of course it could have been better,” he considers. “It was hard and we didn’t have any results. But I’m glad to have had this opportunity. That year I learned a lot, and I have zero regrets. The things I could control, I did everything I could; even taking the insole off my racing boots and cutting the zipper out of the racing suit to reduce weight.”

The early Formula E convert won the series’ inaugural race in Beijing in 2014

Photo by: Glenn Dunbar / LAT Images via Getty Images

After a season of testing Pirelli’s F1 tyres – “getting paid, even if it was little money, to learn this skill was great” – a planned move into the nascent WEC with Peugeot collapsed when the marque withdrew in January 2012 on the eve of a planned test at Sebring. His decision not to sign and mail his contract, but bring it with him to the test, would prove an expensive miscalculation: “I didn’t get paid anything, so lesson learned!” 

But it proved a blessing in disguise. Di Grassi's availability opened the door to a lengthy stint with Audi that encompassed four years in LMP1 and its entry into Formula E first as a powertrain builder, then a full works team.

The invitation to test Audi’s R18 in July 2012 came in the same month he received the call from Agag that changed his life. Even if he’d been racing full-time, he believes his enthusiastic response would have been unchanged despite it being “basically a start-up, we didn’t have money”.

“We had to build everything,” he adds. And di Grassi intends to carry on where he left off in his next chapter. If we’ve learned anything from his story to date, it’s that he won’t be disappearing into the background.

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