Lucas Di Grassi signs for Mahindra Racing following Venturi departure

Popular Brazilian driver Lucas Di Grassi has announced that he’ll be joining Mahindra Racing for the ninth season of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, after becoming the first driver in the series to have scored a thousand points.

The ex-Formula 1 driver and 2016 Formula E champion became the first driver in the series to complete one-hundred races and surpass a thousand points, both of which he achieved at the Seoul E-Prix last weekend. Di Grassi is arguably ‘Mr Formula E’, with the Brazilian having taken part in every Formula E race in the championship’s history, as well as being the first ever winner of the series.

He’ll be joining Mahindra for the 2023 campaign where he’ll be tackling the team’s Gen3 car, with the sport’s regulations completely changing for next year. He joins the Indian team after spending a year with ROKIT Venturi Racing, who are going to be taken-over by Maserati‘s new Formula E entrant next season.

Di Grassi will be replacing Alexander Sims at the team, with the British driver having decided to leave the series; Di Grassi will therefore be alongside Oliver Rowland at the side.

It’s exciting times to be part of Mahindra for Di Grassi, with the side set to have the returning ABT Sportsline as their customer team. Di Grassi spent seven years with ABT, giving him a “good springboard”.

The Brazilian is looking forward to the new challenge, and building a “sustainable future” with the team.

“Joining Mahindra represents a new challenge in my career and the timing could not be better: with the introduction of Gen3 in season nine of the FIA Formula E World Championship, everyone is starting from scratch. Having a seven-year relationship with ABT Sportsline, in which we won the world championship together, will give us a good springboard – the team will use the Mahindra Racing powered by ZF powertrain and this additional data and my close connection to the engineers will stand us in good stead.
 
“The short-term target is to win races and long-term is to help Mahindra Racing to win the world championship and become an icon in electric racing worldwide. We will build an exciting and sustainable future together.” 

Dilbagh Gill CEO and Team Principal at Mahindra Racing added his thoughts on the signing of Di Grassi, who he calls “one of the greatest” to have raced in the series.

“There’s no doubt that Lucas [Di Grassi] is one of the greatest Formula E drivers in the history of the sport – the stats and the silverware do the talking – but, for us, his appeal is much wider than that.

“We are the only team that has been net carbon zero since inception, earning us the title of The Greenest Team in Motorsport, and it is fundamental to our existence that we are driving forward technological developments in electric mobility with passion and knowledge both on- and off-track. We believe Lucas is perfectly positioned to do this and we are ready to get him bedded into our ground-breaking Gen3 programme within the coming weeks.

“Our ambition is for Mahindra Racing to become FIA Formula E World Champions and Lucas’s experience and drive will be instrumental in achieving this.”