Audi wins Formula E title

Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler has produced a near perfect performance in the final weekend of the 2017/18 Formula E Championship to clinch the coveted Teams title. With a deficit of 33 points to make jump, Audi’s season came down to the final two races – one on Saturday and one on Sunday – wedding a strong performance to take the lead and the title.

In a thrilling performance, Audi drivers Lucas di Grassi and Daniel spent the entire weekend on the podium, taking first and second on Saturday and then second and third on Sunday to put the decision beyond any doubt.  

In the first race on Saturday, an accident and requisite cleanup period spent under the safety car saw the race shortened from 45 to 43 laps of the special 2.373km course. Nevertheless, the two Audi e-tron FE04 cars maintained their positions at the finish to take first and second with just 0.965 seconds between them. The win for di Grassi was his eighth in Formula E and his sixth consecutive podium finish this season.

Teammate Daniel Abt, always a fierce competitor, had to settle for second, but managed to set the fastest lap of the race – his fourth for the season – which secured another point for Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler in the hunt for the teams’ title.

The overall performance took Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler to within just five points of the title going into Sunday and the final race of the season. 

With the championship within reach, di Grassi and Abt once again demonstrated their skill and the speed of the Audi e-tron FE04 race cars, finishing the final race of the 2017/18 season in second and third respectively – the result clinching the Teams’ Title by two points.

The result gave Lucas di Grassi his seventh straight podium result this season and also secured the runner-up position in the Drivers’ championship – an extraordinary result given the difficult start to the season.

“No points in four of the races and now I’m second in the drivers’ classification – this is a small miracle. It still turned out to be an exceptional season for me and also our team. We never give up and winning the teams’ title after such an incredible comeback is the best proof of this,” said an ecstatic di Grassi at the end of the weekend.

Lucas di Grassi is now the most successful driver in the four year history of Formula E, with 27 podium finishes and a record 611 points scored to date.

Teammate, Daniel Abt’s third place in the final race capped off a tremendous season for the  25-year-old who finished fifth in the drivers’ classification after two race wins and two other podiums this year.

For Team Principal, Allan McNish, it was a dream come true, coming from behind to win in the final race.

“We were biting our nails all the way to the last corner and the final second of the race, but now it’s reality: Teams’ Champions! This season was up and down, and they [Lucas and Daniel] always did their best. Also, today when a push came to a shove, they delivered the goods. A big thank you also goes to our base camp in Germany. Great job,” McNish said.

Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass echoed the sentiment, saying: 

“When we travelled to New York, it was clear that it would be a huge challenge. That it would be such a thriller and go all the way to the last corner kept us all speechless. A big thank you also to all the employees at Audi Sport, ABT and Schaeffler at home. This heart-stopping finale was really electrifying.”

In addition to the thrilling racing, over the course of the weekend, technology partner Schaeffler offered a view into the future of Formula E, revealing a prototype of the spectacular new Audi e-tron FE05 to guests at a special function. Once again featuring powertrain technology jointly developed by Audi and Schaeffler, the FE05 represents the new face of Audi’s Formula E assault and will replace the hugely successful FE04 going into the fifth season of Formula E racing which begins in December with the first round in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.