He may be bowing out in a blaze of colour, messaging and genuine positive sentiment from his own team, rivals, executives and fans this weekend. But Lucas di Grassi is far from done in the all-electric world championship.
A future beyond the cockpit is all but guaranteed and the Brazilian’s committed and forthright opinions and knowledge on all things Formula E looks set to continue well in to the Gen4 period. It just won’t include set-ups, attack mode strategy and frank ‘consultations’ with stewards!
“I’ve been negotiating already for almost a year and my main choice was, do I stay in a team or do I go in to management in Formula E?” di Grassi told Formula E Notebook recently.
“I’m leaning towards more Formula E now. I think there’s a lot of things to be done that I can help, but also commercially, also in new business ideas and developments, and technologies that we need to insert into the championship.
“I want to also help the drivers, help FIA with the track designs and there are so many areas. I need just to focus on which ones I think I can add more value. But definitely I will stay in Formula E.”
Di Grassi will spend a lot of his time in Sao Paulo after the London finale as he and his wife, Bianca, are expecting their third child, a daughter to join Leo and Beatrice, in October.
In his homeland di Grassi will also compete in a couple of Brazilian Stock Car races too, keeping his hand in, although his dedicated and international professional career will be over this Sunday in London.
He’s the type of driver who will probably still be racing something well in to his sixties but right now the white heat of professional competition is over.
di Grassi: Future TP?
In some respects, di Grassi feels like a natural team principal in Formula E. Authoritative, intelligent and concise in decision making, he might still choose that direction in the near future.
“Yes, maybe after a year I go back to a team helping maybe like deputy team principal or something like this,” outlined di Grassi.
“I need to gain experience in management in the second stage of my career. Like Jerome (current Ferrari deputy TP, d’Ambrosio) did, for example.
“Jerome is a perfect example. Super competent, very serious guy and he’s having an amazing career. I think he will be the TP of an important F1 team very soon, so that’s kind of also the target for the future.”
