A key staple of the ABT organisation since late 2022, Frederic Espinos has risen from sporting manager to deputy team principal at Lola Yamaha ABT and was chosen to represent the team on the podium after Lucas di Grassi’s unforgettable win in July.
Less than two months on from that moment Espinos has left the team after what is believed to have been several offers of a senior role at both Formula E and FIA World Endurance Championship teams.
His future is yet to be “completely decided upon” but Espinos was much more open about his time at the team which began as ABT CUPRA before morphing in to Lola Yamaha ABT at the start of the first Gen3 Evo season at the end of 2024.
“Over four years we have reinforced the team with new elements and we have had a strong group of people which were pushing super hard all the team,” Espinos told Formula E Notebook the day after he formally left Lola Yamaha ABT.
“This year was complex, but we were pushing until the and this is where it’s little bit sad that the team we have built will stop because it was a very good group, and it was not easy to do the transition to start from scratch with Lola.”
That alluded to the decision by Lola to discontinue its service provider agreement with ABT last January. That was something of a shock but Lola clearly wanted to develop an in-house team. That is still developing with recruitments being made now, but it all seems late to be solidifying in time for the start of the new season which is just nine weeks away from an official test perspective.
But there is a context to be made. And that is Lola Yamaha ABT is in reality still trying to stem the rushing tide of joining mid-way through a rules set, something that Espinos readily addresses.
“Others were already two years in the in the Gen3 programme, but we have made good progress, and we have done one podium last year, one victory this year, but there was up and down,” he appraises.
Frustration has been a part and parcel of the last two seasons for Lola. That has put added pressure on them for Gen4, a rules set which it should be kicking on to become a possible front runner. The car is said to be quick but fragile, which in a sense is what Lola’s persona has been ever since it entered Formula E in the summer of 2024. But this was not believed to be enough for Espinos, who although will not say it, is understood to have been largely at odds with some of the strategic decisions on how the team will be run for Gen4.
There have been recent questions about the team’s ambition, largely due to its poor end to last season and in particular the lack of pace in recruiting engineering talent to replace the ABT resource. There was also rumours the team could take a pay driver of some description for next season, something which while not unheard of in Formula E, is now quite rare.
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While Espinos is now looking at pastures new, he does still hold fond memories of what he and others achieved at the team.
One of the most visceral is undoubtedly Lucas di Grassi’s sensational run to second place in only Lola’s fifth race upon its international racing return in April 2025.
“The podium in Miami last year was amazing,” said Victory this year was unexpected, but also very good. So that’s let’s say the two moments on track, but we have a lot of good moment off track too.
“I remember Till (Lola owner – Bechtolsheimer) inviting us to his house last year after Miami, all the team, the mechanics and so on. It was fantastic.”
At that stage Lola was still finding its feet but the result came as a welcome pressure relief for a while. It ended its first season with some strong performances but Espinos, who previously worked for the FIA and Formula E Operations in separate stints, was adamant that the crew kept firmly grounded.
“I was always telling them, ‘okay, it’s not going to be easy’ and that clearly ‘do not expect to fight at the front. In fact, it’s more difficult to be at the back than to be on the front, always.
“But I could promise them that we’d have good times together, and I think we have a lot of great moments off track, which is also important because if you want people to push and to deliver their maximum with their professionalism, they also need to have a good time together.
“So at least everybody was always happy to come to the race track and you can feel it in the team when that happens. Its super cool.”
