Lucas di Grassi is to rejoin his long-time Formula E team ABT Sportsline for a two-weekend, four race spell to complete the 2021 DTM season in an Audi R8 LMS GT3.
he Brazilian scored twelve victories for the team, including the win at the very first race of the electric racing series in Beijing on 13 September 2014 plus the drivers’ title in the 2016/2017 season and a decisive role in winning the teams’ championship in the 2017/2018 season.
Whilst di Grassi continues in Formula E beyond Audi’s exit with the Venturi team, he now rejoins the ABT effort elsewhere.
“For a long time, we thought about what we could do for Lucas as a little Formula E farewell present and how to allow our journey to continue,” says Hans-Jürgen Abt. “Then we came up with the crazy idea of giving Lucas a weekend in the DTM and now it will even turn into two weekends with a total of four races.”
di Grassi will contest the last four DTM races of the 2021 season at Hockenheim (October 2/3) and the Norisring (October 9/10) as a teammate of Kelvin van der Linde, Mike Rockenfeller and Sophia Flörsch with a car liveried to match his racing winning Formula E car of the 2016/2017 season.
“This unique campaign was made possible by our great partners, who all immediately spontaneously agreed when we presented our not-so-ordinary idea to them,” says ABT Sport marketing Director Harry Unflath. “I am proud that with Fujitsu, H&R, HYLA, Gullwing, KUKA, Remus, Schaeffler, Scherer, SONAX, SÜDPACK and Würth Electronics we have such fantastic partners with whom you can even pull off such spontaneous campaigns. Thanks also to Riga Mainz for lending us their car for these events.”
“This is typical ABT,” says Lucas di Grassi. “You rarely find a relationship in sport like this in today’s world. Together with ABT Sportsline, I had a fantastic time in Formula E and I hoped until the very end that I would be able to stay with them, even after Audi’s exit from Formula E. Now that this didn’t work out in the end for Season 8, I am super excited that we continue our journey together for two DTM weekends. This also proves that there is hopefully much more to come in the future.”
di Grassi has raced the GT3 car before, in the GT World Cup in Macau and will be joined in the DTM by Markus Michelberger, his long-time race engineer from Formula E
“These will be two very emotional DTM weekends for us,” says Thomas Biermaier, who also has a message for Venturi team boss Susie Wolff: “Lucas is only on loan!”
