A few days after edams had signed came the return of the Super Aguri name that had competed in F1 in 2006-7. Spearheaded by ex-F1 driver Aguri Suzuki, the team was run day-to-day by directors and technical driving forces Mark Preston, Peter McCool and commercial chief Ferry Spijkerman.
The team soon announced the first female driver for the championship with the signature of Katherine Legge, while Red Bull academy hotshoe Antonio Felix da Costa would be their other nominated driver, although the Portuguese would miss the first and last events of the first season and be replaced by Takuma Sato and Sakon Yamamoto respectively.
November 2013 saw a major double-whammy announcement as German racing behemoths ABT Sportsline entered the fray with official Formula E development driver Lucas di Grassi and Daniel Abt, who had just come of the back of a bruising GP2 campaign.
More pertinently though, ABT brought along an exploratory and inquisitive Audi Sport who would, officially at least, hold a watching brief on the series for the first three seasons, as would technology giant Schaeffler, which was an affiliate partner.
The sub-continent would be represented by the Mahindra name, one of the most prolific providers of industrial transport and a plethora of engineering services the world over.
Entrusted with finding Mahindra’s feet in global single-seater racing was Dilbagh Gill. His experience and enthusiasm as a mechanic for an F3 team in the early 1990s, and his blossoming and successful sports business career, which included major work with FIFA at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, would come to define the popular team.
To get themselves established for the first season, Mahindra at first looked at working with the I-Sport GP2 team but eventually paired up with the multi-decorated junior category team Carlin Motorsport, with Bruno Senna and Karun Chandhok leading the charge in the cockpit.
The last two teams brought big names and more than a touch of glamour and charisma to the grid.
Virgin Racing and Venturi Automobiles may have been the last two teams to commit to Formula E but if Virgin founder Richard Branson’s monolithic ego did wonders for the PR of Formula E, then Venturi trumped it all with their spectacular announcement.
Fish and Vodka with Leonardo di Caprio
At the end of 2012 at the North End Grill restaurant on the tip of Rockefeller Park in New York City, Alejandro Agag met global megastar actor Leonardo DiCaprio for lunch. As you do!
The unlikely duo ate lemon sole and drank vodka while discussing the star of ‘Catch Me if You Can’ and Titanic’s passion for environmental activism. Some stars quickly became aligned and DiCaprio was soon a partner and co-founder of the curiously named Venturi Grand Prix team.
‘The future of our planet depends on our ability to embrace fuel-efficient, clean-energy vehicles,’ said DiCaprio. ‘Venturi Grand Prix has shown tremendous foresight in their decision to create an environmentally friendly racing team, and I am happy to be a part of this effort.’
The Monegasque squad opted for experience as ex-Sauber and Lotus F1 driver Nick Heidfeld was joined by one of racing’s great all-rounders, Stephane Sarrazin, in the team which was originally intended to be run by the Signature operation, but in reality was an amalgam of home-grown engineers and Monaco based contract workers initially.
Virgin Racing, which had seen its sporting reputation take a hit with the woeful F1 team in 2010, would be headed by Branson’s right-hand man Alex Tai, who was introduced to the idea of FE by Lucas di Grassi.
When Tai didn’t share di Grassi’s renowned enthusiasm, the Brazilian simply called up Branson’s daughter Holly, who prodded her Dad and thus Tai received an encouraging phone call.
Tai wasted little time in hiring two young and promising drivers – former Mercedes F1 test driver Sam Bird, and Toro Rosso F1 refugee, Jamie Alguersuari.
The field was therefore complete. Agag deliberately built the Formula E constitution to incorporate two extra teams, so a maximum of 12, but with four cars per team for the first epoch of the series from 2014-18, logistically and operationally the field was capped at 10 entrants.
It was time to head to Beijing, and the rest, as they say, is history.
