Lucas di Grassi is to call time on his long and distinguished racing career at the end of Formula E Season 12 in August. His entry in the series was a gamble, but boy did it pay off. Not just for him, but for Formula E itself. Motorsport Week recently interviewed the man who admitted he “bet” his career on the then-fledgling series, and is set to leave it when its at its biggest.
At Circuit Paul Ricard last week, invited media, including Motorsport Week, got a glimpse of the forthcoming Gen4 car from Formula E. It is no doubt a pivotal moment for the series. Bigger, chunkier and by a long way the fastest car its ever produced, the all-electric championship looks to be set to move further towards the mainstream of motorsport.
All four generations of cat sat side by side on the start line at Le Castellet, and even shared the track together, too, underlining the progress Formula E has made in 12 years. Gen4 is without a doubt its biggest and bulkiest car, but is perhaps its most exciting. Not only does it look like a proper racing car, it boasts the stats that have led to widespread predictions that it can lap circuits like Monaco faster than a current Formula 2 car.
One man who has seen it all is Lucas di Grassi. After winning the first race in Beijing, the Brazilian has remained ever since, taking a Drivers’ Championship and being another kind of champion – the biggest champion of the series as a whole.
Now the driver that is helping the nascent Lola outfit ply its trade in the championship with his vast experience, di Grassi has been there every step on the way, and in an exclusive interview with Motorsport Week, he acknowledged just how much the whole entity of electric mobility has come along in that time.
“Yeah, for sure it came a long way, right?” he said. “Not only for Formula E, but electric technology in general. If we look at road cars from, I don’t know, 13, 12, 13 years ago, and the road cars today, the electric cars, I mean, it’s a completely different product, right? So what I think is very interesting, regardless, is we are not doing marginal gains.
“When you look at a combustion engine, or look at F1, like this engine this year, it’s actually less efficient than the engine from last year, because they changed the compression ratio, they changed the MGU-H, and so on. So actually the engine is less efficient. So even if there is a little bit of technology gain, the gains are marginal. We are still making exponential gains.
So the gains before are smaller than the gains that would come.”
Di Grassi continued that it proves that whilst the forthcoming Gen4 is no doubt impressive, it is just another step towards something even great in the future.
“That just shows that the technology is far away from being mature,” he said. “We are still in a phase that the next generation of cars is actually way faster than the previous one, and the next Gen5 hopefully is even faster, and then we reach to a point that the human will be the limit, right, in terms of speed. And we are reaching that phase already. So I call it like a ‘singularity motorsport’ where the electric section becomes faster than combustion. And this will happen in the next four years, if only dependent on the technology.
“So this is what I think is very interesting, to see all these cars side by side and understand that actually we are in this exponential side of the curve and nothing close to, there is so much still scope to develop these cars.”
From ‘Gen0’ to helping create the ‘ecosystems’ that make Formula E the giant it is today
Whilst without wanting to take nothing away from the championship itself, di Grassi sees this as a huge moment for him, having driven the initial prototype car, and how it proved to be a happy watershed moment in his career.
“Yeah, I drove actually the Gen0, it’s not even here,” he jokes. “There was a car before that we drove in LA, we did some demos, it was like a prototype kind of car. So yeah, it’s for me, I bet my career on Formula E. I just left F1 [in 2010], I was starting endurance career with Audi. When Formula E came along, I was like, ‘OK, this is it’, and I bet my career on it.
“So I was able to make myself, my career in Formula E. I helped hundreds, if not thousands of people to get jobs, to be in an exciting racing series. I think people underestimate, actually Formula E didn’t exist. We wouldn’t have 20 racing spots, but the whole ecosystems of journalists, mechanics, Team Principals, suppliers, and so on. So we created something out of thin air that is actually very good for motorsport, regardless. So I feel very happy that I participated so heavily in this build up of this championship.
“This has nothing to do with my personal achievements as a racing driver. This is something part of that. Of course, I’m proud of what I achieved in these 12 years, but this is something that, regardless if I would have raced or not, I’ll be proud to actually bet on something that became what it is.”
Some of the younger drivers who have recently joined FE from F2, have theorised over recent weeks to Motorsport Week that perhaps they may hold some sort of advantage, given the speeds are similar to what they have been recently racing with, and how the shape of the car is a little more traditional to the current Gen3 Evo model.
When I put this to di Grassi, it appeared that he had not thought of this before, and finds the prospect intriguing.
“That’s a good point. I don’t know the answer,” he said. “I think it’s very different from an F2 car in many ways, but the speed is similar. So adapting to the speed is definitely an advantage coming from a faster series. But coming from Formula E is an advantage by knowing the tracks, by knowing the software, how everything works, how to save energy in the right moment. So I think you can see it from both ways.
“I think maybe if I was a Team Principal, put a combination of a younger driver and an experienced one, I think that that’s a good combination. But definitely, if you want to bet on new drivers, this is the time to do it as well. In my opinion, you definitely bet on new drivers when the generation changes.
“Coming to the middle of a generation when everybody has three years of experience already, it’s hard. You see from Zayn’s [Maloney, di Grassi’s teammate] perspective, for example. He came from Formula 2 being… Well, he led the championship for a few races, he won races, and the first year he struggled massively in the races, especially, because you just don’t have the experience. It’s a great driver, but it takes time to get to that level. So, yeah, I think now it’s a good time to bet on young drivers if you have some good drivers in mind.”
Helping Formula E find ‘the defined strategy’ to take it forward
The younger drivers also seem to be the more receptive to the idea of moving Formula E to more purpose-built circuits, as opposed to the city centre circuits that has always been in the series’ DNA, but reasons that there are many street circuits that have not yet been used by Formula E which could be on the calendar.
For di Grassi, it seems like anything will be what he is happy with, provided that Formula E has a clear plan for its future.
“Look, the right approach is not what I think or A, B, C driver thinks,” he said. “The correct answer to your question is: ‘what is the strategy of the championship?’, [as in] where the championship wants to be in three, four years’ time, and then bring it back to the current value or current point. I think, for example, now we have tracks that we share with F1 already. That’s great.
“So if the strategy is to share, let’s say, half of F1 with F1, and then half being single four-way tracks, then it’s fine. Then you keep this strategy. You have already Shanghai, Mexico, Monaco, and so on, and others there that you share with F1. You have the other ones that are purely made for Formula E and you keep this balance. So as far as you have a defined strategy, then you adapt to the new tracks.
“But what is a given point that this car will not be able to race in tracks like London, I would say Tokyo is hard, because the car is too fast and now it’s bigger. So definitely we have to adapt the tracks or find new tracks for the car and for the speed that the car actually is going.”
Di Grassi also confirmed that a crunch meeting with the FIA took place just hours before our interview – a follow-up to the briefly-controversial letter that he and reigning World Champion Oliver Rowland headed – and signed by the other 18 men on the grid this season – questioning the championship’s level of race direction. He teases that an agreement has been reached and has acquiesced to the drivers.
With that knowledge, I ask di Grassi whether he then thinks, that with F1 currently experiencing its own problems with identity, and the huge excitement Gen4 has generated, this could be a big moment for Formula E.
“Yeah, I think Formula E could have a good moment. Everything is helping Formula E to go to the right direction. There are many challenges in the way.
“But yes, I think not only the Gen4, but the evolution of Gen4 to create a car which is faster than F1. And that’s the ultimate vision, like having the fastest car in motorsport being a F1 car. That will change a lot of people’s mentality.
“And if I could do one job, apart from racing, that would be it. Like get Formula E to a spot that is faster than F1. That would be the, I think, the ultimate goal in terms of technical development of the car.”
It appears that there is no doubt in di Grassi’s mind that he will be there for the start of this era, but juat not in the car.
For a man who bet his whole career on Formula E, who would bet against the idea of him continuing to be its biggest cheerleader as it approaches its new generation?
READ MORE – Formula E aims big with bid to ‘redefine motorsport’ with Gen4 car
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