Lucas di Grassi

Lucas di Grassi
Di Grassi at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix
Nationality	Brazilian
Born	11 August 1984 São Paulo, Brazil
WEC career
Debut season	2012
Current team	Audi Sport Team Joest
Car no.	1
Former teams	0
Starts	20
Championships	0
Wins	0
Poles	0
Fastest laps	1
Best finish	4th in 2014, 2015
Finished last season	4th
Formula E career
Debut season	2014–15
Current team	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport
Car no.	11
Starts	18
Championships	0
Wins	4
Poles	0
Fastest laps	1
Best finish	3rd in 2014–15
Finished last season	3rd
Formula One World Championship career
Active years	2010
Teams	Virgin
Entries	19 (18 starts)
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	0
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	2010 Bahrain Grand Prix
Last entry	2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix

Lucas Tucci di Grassi (born 11 August 1984) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who currently competes for Audi Sport Team Joest in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Di Grassi also races in the FIA Formula E Championship for Audi Sport ABT and became the first driver in motorsport history to win a motor race in an all-electric single-seater racing car at the 2014 Beijing ePrix. He is also a former GP2 Series runner-up, as well as driving for Virgin Racing in the 2010 Formula One season.

Career

Early career

Born in São Paulo, di Grassi's career in karting peaked in 2000, with a 5th place in the Formula A World Championship. Di Grassi began his formula racing career in Brazilian Formula Renault in 2002, finishing as runner-up.

Formula Three (2003–06)

In 2003 Di Grassi stepped up to Formula Three, driving a Dallara F301 Mugen-Honda for Avallone Motorsport in Formula Three Sudamericana. He finished as the championship runner-up behind Danilo Dirani, with one win and eleven other podium finishes. This came despite missing the last six races after suffering a major crash at the Curitiba round.^[1]

He also travelled to Europe to make four race starts in the F3 Euroseries with Prema Powerteam, achieving a best finish of fourth place.^[2] The following year, he made a permanent move to Europe and took a drive with Hitech Racing in the British F3 Championship. His season peaked with two wins, and he was classified in eighth place overall.^[3] Another of that year's highlights was a podium finish on his début at the Macau Grand Prix with Hitech.

In 2005, Di Grassi took another step up in a full-time return to the F3 Euroseries with Manor Motorsport. Against the dominant ASM pairing of Lewis Hamilton and Adrian Sutil he could only manage one win but ended the year third in the championship.^[1]

At the end of the season, Di Grassi returned to Macau, this time with Manor, and won the event from third on the grid,^[4] although runaway F3 Euroseries champion Hamilton missed the race.^[1]

GP2 Series (2006–09)

Di Grassi driving for Campos Grand Prix at the Silverstone round of the 2008 GP2 Series season

2006 brought Di Grassi to the next stage in his career: promotion to the GP2 Grand Prix support series with Team Durango. It was a modest debut season, however, with only 8 points and 17th place in the championship standings.^[5]

For 2007 he joined reigning champions ART Grand Prix. He scored points consistently throughout the season, failing to score only once in the first 13 races. Despite not winning a race in that time, it put him in contention for the championship along with iSport's Timo Glock.^[1]

He scored his first win of the year in the 14th round of the championship at Istanbul, and took the lead of the championship,^[6] but Glock moved back ahead of him when he won the sprint race at the same event,^[7] and went on to win the title.

Di Grassi worked on testing the new-model GP2 car (to be used between 2008 and 2010), while testing for Renault F1. However, he resumed his GP2 career in 2008 by securing a drive at Campos Racing from round 4 onwards, replacing Ben Hanley.^[8] With three-second places and one fourth-place finish, he was the highest-scoring driver over the first two race meetings in which he took part. Two wins followed and he briefly looked set for a surprising championship challenge, before a final lap collision with Giorgio Pantano (who was disqualified for the incident) at Spa effectively ended his hopes. He finished an eventual third, ten points behind Pantano despite six fewer races.

He returned to the series for 2009 with Racing Engineering,^[9] and again finished third, finishing with the same number of points as he did in 2008.

Formula One

Having previously been a test driver for Renault in 2005, di Grassi tested for the Honda Racing F1 Team at the end of 2008, alongside fellow Brazilian and GP2 rival Bruno Senna.

Renault (2008–2009)

Di Grassi was then sent a contract by Renault to join them as a test driver, becoming the third GP2 runner-up to join Renault as a test driver after fellow Brazilian Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Heikki Kovalainen. However, di Grassi was not retained by the team for 2010.

Virgin (2010)

Di Grassi took his and the Virgin team's first race finish at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

Di Grassi joined Timo Glock at new team Virgin Racing for 2010. The team, originally called Manor, was rebranded when Virgin Group owner Richard Branson purchased a 20% stake.^[10] Di Grassi finished in 24th position in the championship, with a best race finish of 14th at the 2010 Malaysian Grand Prix.

In Japan, he crashed on the way to the grid before the race had started.^[11] In December, di Grassi won the Desafio Internacional das Estrelas, a karting event organised by Felipe Massa.

On 21 December 2010, di Grassi was left without a drive, after Virgin announced Jérôme d'Ambrosio to partner Glock for the 2011 season.^[12]

Testing

Pirelli (2011–)

On 6 July 2011, di Grassi was appointed Pirelli's official tester for their development of Formula One tyres for the 2011 season,^[13] and will drive the Italian company's Toyota TF109 test car in five test sessions in order to develop the next generation of tyres, as well as attending several race weekends where he will collect information about tyre performance and attend technical briefings.^[13] He will remain with Pirelli for the 2012 Formula One season alongside Jaime Alguersuari to help develop tyres for 2013 and beyond using a Renault R30 chassis and it will be upgraded to the 2012 requirements for Alguersuari and Di Grassi to run the car across four development tests during the course of the season at Jerez, Spa, Monza and Barcelona to help Pirelli improve its selection of tyres.

Formula E (2012–)

Di Grassi (rightmost, holding the steering wheel) and Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag (6th person from left) unveiling the Spark-Renault SRT 01E.

In 2012, di Grassi was announced as the official test driver for the upcoming environmentally friendly Formula E series run by the FIA.^[14] He first tested the prototype Formula E car at Circuit de L'Eure near Paris in August.^[15] Di Grassi later terminated his contract as test driver to race in the series.^[16]

On 13 February 2014, di Grassi was announced to be competing in the upcoming Formula E season with Audi Sport ABT alongside his campaign in the World Endurance Championship. Di Grassi will be team mates with GP2 driver Daniel Abt.

Di Grassi at the 2015 Berlin ePrix.

2014-15

In September 2014, di Grassi won the first race of the season in Beijing. This made Di Grassi the first driver in history to win an all-electric motor race in history. He recorded two more consecutive podiums in Putrajaya with second place, and in Punta del Este with third place to give him the championship lead. However, Di Grassi had bad luck with suspension failure in Buenos Aires, causing him to retire from the lead, and technical issues caused him to finish 9th in Miami and lose the championship lead. Di Grassi bounced back with third place in Long Beach and second place in Monaco to give himself a 4-point lead with four rounds to go. Di Grassi's championship took a huge blow when he was disqualified from Berlin after winning the race. Di Grassi took his final podium of the season with second place in Moscow but with Piquet Jr. winning, Di Grassi entered the double-header in London 17 points down. Di Grassi finished 4th and 6th in the two races in London, one place ahead of Piquet each time and ultimately finished eleven points behind Piquet and lost second to Buemi, who won the first London race. He, however, managed the most podium finishes of any driver with six.

2015-16

For the second consecutive year Di Grassi achieved three podium finishes in the opening three races. Di Grassi started the season with second place in the Beijing and then followed this up with victory in Putrajaya and took the championship lead. Di Grassi followed up his win with second place in Punta del Este behind Buemi and third place in the Buenos Aires also behind Buemi, meaning he was four points behind after four races but at that race, set the new record for most consecutive podium finishes with 4. Di Grassi's title hopes took a brief blow after being disqualified from the win at the Mexico City but bounced back with a victory that wasn't taken away at Long Beach whilst Buemi who was 22 Points ahead going into the race had a mistake filled race where he collided into the back of Robin Frijns, had to switch cars early and ultimately finished 16th and took two points for fastest lap. Di Grassi then followed this up with another victory in the Paris whereas Buemi finished in 3rd to give him an eleven-point lead heading into Berlin.

World Endurance Championship and Le Mans with Audi Sport

In September 2012, Di Grassi was confirmed to be driving for Audi for round five in the World Endurance Championship at São Paulo alongside Allan McNish and Tom Kristensen, and replacing Rinaldo Capello who had retired after the 2012 24 Hours of Le Mans. Di Grassi managed to qualify the No. 2 Audi second on the grid, and finished the race third overall. Di Grassi did not race with Audi for the rest of the year, but was announced as an Audi test driver for 2013.

Audi announced in March 2013 that Di Grassi was selected to race for Audi for the opening round of the 2013 American Le Mans Series season at the 12 Hours of Sebring. Di Grassi again teamed up with Kristensen and McNish, and finished second overall after exchanging the lead with the sister Audi.

Shortly after the season-opening 6 Hours of Silverstone, Audi announced that Di Grassi would be racing an experimental car at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and the 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Oliver Jarvis and Marc Gené, and finished third in both events.

On 3 February 2014, Audi announced that di Grassi would replace the retiring Allan McNish in the No. 1 Audi, sharing the ride with Tom Kristensen and Loïc Duval for the full 2014 season.

Racing record

Career summary

Season	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	F/Laps	Podiums	Points	Position
2002	Formula Renault 2.0 Brazil	G Force Motorsport	10	2	1	0	6	137	2nd
2003	Formula 3 Sudamericana	Avallone Motorsport	12	1	3	0	11	164	2nd
	Formula 3 Euro Series	Prema Powerteam	4	0	0	0	0	5	21st
2004	British Formula 3	Hitech Racing	24	2	3	0	6	130	8th
	Bahrain Super Prix		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	19th
	Macau Grand Prix		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	5th
	FIA European Formula Three Cup		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	6th
2005	Formula 3 Euro Series	Manor Motorsport	19	1	2	1	6	68	3rd
	Macau Grand Prix		1	1	0	0	1	N/A	1st
	Masters of Formula 3		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
	Formula One	Mild Seven Renault F1 Team	Test driver
2006	GP2 Series	Durango	20	0	0	0	0	8	17th
2007	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	21	1	0	0	7	77	2nd
	Formula One	ING Renault F1 Team	Test driver
2008	GP2 Series	Barwa International Campos Team	14	3	0	2	6	63	3rd
	Formula One	ING Renault F1 Team	Test driver
		Honda Racing F1 Team
2009	GP2 Series	Racing Engineering	20	1	1	2	8	63	3rd
	Formula One	ING Renault F1 Team	Test driver
2010	Formula One	Virgin Racing	19	0	0	0	0	0	24th
2011	Formula One	Pirelli	Test driver
2012	FIA World Endurance Championship	Audi Sport Team Joest	1	0	0	1	1	15	22nd
	City of Dreams Macau GT Cup	AF Corse	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	17th
	24 Hours of Nürburgring	Dörr Motorsport	1	0	0	0	0	N/A	NC
	International V8 Supercars Championship	Tekno Autosports	2	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2013	FIA World Endurance Championship	Audi Sport Team Joest	2	0	0	0	2	45	9th
	24 Hours of Le Mans		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	3rd
	American Le Mans Series		1	0	0	0	1	0	NC†
2014	FIA World Endurance Championship	Audi Sport Team Joest	8	0	0	0	4	117	4th
	24 Hours of Le Mans		1	0	0	0	1	N/A	2nd
	Stock Car Brasil	Ipiranga-RCM	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2014–15	Formula E	Audi Sport ABT	11	1	0	1	6	133	3rd
2015	FIA World Endurance Championship	Audi Sport Team Joest	8	0	0	0	1	99	4th
	24 Hours of Le Mans		1	0	0	0	0	N/A	4th
	Stock Car Brasil	Ipiranga-RCM	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC†
2015–16	Formula E	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	7	3	0	0	6	126	1st*
2016	FIA World Endurance Championship	Audi Sport Team Joest	1	0	0	0	0	0	NC*
	Stock Car Brasil	Ipiranga-RCM	1	0	0	1	0	0	NC†

^* Season still in progress.
^† As di Grassi was a guest driver, he was ineligible for championship points.

Complete Formula 3 Euro Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	DC	Points
2003	Prema Powerteam	Dallara F303/022	Spiess-Opel	HOC 1	HOC 2	ADR 1 14	ADR 2 18	PAU 1 9	PAU 2 4	NOR 1	NOR 2	LMS 1	LMS 2	NÜR 1	NÜR 2	A1R 1	A1R 2	ZAN 1	ZAN 2	HOC 3	HOC 4	MAG 1	MAG 2	21st	5
2005	Manor Motorsport	Dallara F305/025	Mercedes	HOC 1 Ret	HOC 2 DNS	PAU 1 5	PAU 2 7	SPA 1 DSQ	SPA 2 3	MON 1 7	MON 2 5	OSC 1 1	OSC 2 2	NOR 1 5	NOR 2 6	NÜR 1 2	NÜR 2 Ret	ZAN 1 Ret	ZAN 2 Ret	LAU 1 8	LAU 2 3	HOC 3 2	HOC 4 Ret	3rd	68

Complete GP2 Series results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	DC	Points
2006	Durango	VAL FEA 17	VAL SPR 16	SMR FEA Ret	SMR SPR Ret	GER FEA 18	GER SPR 13	ESP FEA 12	ESP SPR 9	MON FEA 11	GBR FEA Ret	GBR SPR EX	FRA FEA 7	FRA SPR 6	GER FEA Ret	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA 13	HUN SPR Ret	TUR FEA 5	TUR SPR 9	ITA FEA 10	ITA SPR 14	17th	8
2007	ART Grand Prix	BHR FEA 5	BHR SPR Ret	ESP FEA 3	ESP SPR 3	MON FEA 5	FRA FEA 2	FRA SPR 4	GBR FEA 4	GBR SPR 4	EUR FEA 2	EUR SPR 6	HUN FEA 4	HUN SPR 4	TUR FEA 1	TUR SPR 11	ITA FEA 13	ITA SPR 4	BEL FEA 3	BEL SPR 3	VAL FEA Ret	VAL SPR 13	2nd	77
2008	Barwa International Campos Team	ESP FEA	ESP SPR	TUR FEA	TUR SPR	MON FEA	MON SPR	FRA FEA 2	FRA SPR 4	GBR FEA 2	GBR SPR 2	GER FEA 5	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA 1	HUN SPR 10	EUR FEA 4	EUR SPR 1	BEL FEA 20	BEL SPR 5	ITA FEA 1	ITA SPR 11		3rd	63
2009	Racing Engineering	ESP FEA Ret	ESP SPR 10	MON FEA 4	MON SPR 4	TUR FEA 8	TUR SPR 1	GBR FEA 2	GBR SPR 19	GER FEA 7	GER SPR Ret	HUN FEA 2	HUN SPR 3	VAL FEA 19	VAL SPR Ret	BEL FEA 3	BEL SPR Ret	ITA FEA 3	ITA SPR 2	POR FEA 3	POR SPR 15		3rd	63

Complete Formula One results

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	WDC	Points
2010	Virgin Racing	Virgin VR-01	Cosworth CA2010 2.4 V8	BHR Ret	AUS Ret	MAL 14	CHN Ret	ESP 19	MON Ret	TUR 19	CAN 19	EUR 17	GBR Ret	GER Ret	HUN 18	BEL 17	ITA 20†	SIN 15	JPN DNS	KOR Ret	BRA NC	ABU 18	24th	0

^† Driver did not finish the Grand Prix, but was classified as they had completed over 90% of the race distance.

Touring Car racing

V8 Supercar results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	Final Pos	Points
2012	Tekno Autosports	Holden VE Commodore	ADE R1	ADE R2	SYM R3	SYM R4	HAM R5	HAM R6	BAR R7	BAR R8	BAR R9	PHI R10	PHI R11	HID R12	HID R13	TOW R14	TOW R15	QLD R16	QLD R17	SMP R18	SMP R19	SAN Q	SAN R20	BAT R21	SUR R22 11	SUR R23 DNS	YMC R24	YMC R25	YMC R26	WIN R27	WIN R28	SYD R29	SYD R30	NC	0 †

† Not Eligible for points

Stock Car Brasil results

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	Rank	Points
2014	Ipiranga-RCM	Chevrolet Sonic	INT 1 Ret	SCZ 1	SCZ 2	BRA 1	BRA 2	GOI 1	GOI 2	GOI 1	CAS 1	CAS 2	CUR 1	CUR 2	VEL 1	VEL 2	SCZ 1	SCZ 2	TAR 1	TAR 2	SAL 1	SAL 2	CUR 1	NC†	0†
2015	Ipiranga-RCM	Chevrolet Sonic	GOI 1 5	RBP 1	RBP 2	VEL 1	VEL 2	CUR 1	CUR 2	SCZ 1	SCZ 2	CUR 1	CUR 2	GOI 1	CAS 1	CAS 2	BRA 1	BRA 2	CUR 1	CUR 2	TAR 1	TAR 2	INT 1	NC†	0†
2016	Ipiranga-RCM	Chevrolet Sonic	CUR 1 14	VEL 1	VEL 2	GOI 1	GOI 2	SCZ 1	SCZ 2	TAR 1	TAR 2	CAS 1	CAS 2	INT 1	LON 1	LON 2	TBA 1	TBA 2	GOI 1	GOI 2	CDC 1	CDC 2	INT 1	NC†	0†

^† Ineligible for championship points.

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

Year	Entrant	Class	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Rank	Points
2012	Audi Sport Team Joest	LMP1	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Audi TDI 3.7L Turbo V6 (Hybrid Diesel)	SEB	SPA	LMS	SIL	SÃO 3	BHR	FUJ	SHA		22nd	15
2013	Audi Sport Team Joest	LMP1	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Audi TDI 3.7L Turbo V6 (Hybrid Diesel)	SIL	SPA 3	LMS 3	SÃO	CTA	FUJ	SHA	BHR		9th	45
2014	Audi Sport Team Joest	LMP1	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Audi TDI 4.0 L Turbo V6 (Hybrid Diesel)	SIL Ret	SPA 2	LMS 2	COA 2	FUJ 5	SHA 5	BHR 5	SÃO 3		4th	117
2015	Audi Sport Team Joest	LMP1	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Audi TDI 4.0 L Turbo V6 (Hybrid Diesel)	SIL 5	SPA 7	LMS 4	NÜR 4	COA 3	FUJ 4	SHA 4	BHR 6		4th	99
2016	Audi Sport Team Joest	LMP1	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	Audi TDI 4.0 L Turbo Diesel V6 (Hybrid)	SIL Ret	SPA	LMS	NÜR	MEX	COA	FUJ	SHA	BHR	NC*	0*

^* Season still in progress.

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
2013	Audi Sport Team Joest	Marc Gené Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	LMP1	347	3rd	3rd
2014	Audi Sport Team Joest	Tom Kristensen Marc Gené	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	LMP1-H	376	2nd	2nd
2015	Audi Sport Team Joest	Loïc Duval Oliver Jarvis	Audi R18 e-tron quattro	LMP1	392	4th	4th

Complete Formula E results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Team	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos	Points
2014–15	Audi Sport ABT	Spark-Renault SRT 01E	BEI 1	PUT 2	PDE 3	BNA Ret	MIA 9	LBH 3	MON 2	BER DSQ	MOS 2	LON 4	LON 6	3rd	133
2015–16	ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport	Spark-ABT Schaeffler FE01	BEI 2	PUT 1	PDE 2	BNA 3	MEX DSQ	LBH 1	PAR 1	BER	MOS	LON	LON	1st*	126*

^* Season still in progress.

References

1. "Meet the rookies: Lucas di Grassi". F1Fanatic.co.uk. 2007. Retrieved 13 August 2007.
2. "Forix". Autosport.
3. "Forix". Autosport.
4. "Forix". Autosport.
5. "Forix". Autosport.
6. "GP2 Turkey Feature: di Grassi takes title lead". MaximumMotorsport.co.uk. 2007. Archived from the original on 17 December 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2007.
7. "GP2 Turkey Sprint: Glock back on top". MaximumMotorsport.co.uk. 2007. Archived from the original on 21 October 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2007.
8. "Di Grassi in GP2 Return with Campos". autosport.com. 2008. Retrieved 9 June 2008.
9. "Di Grassi joins Racing Engineering". autosport.com. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
10. "Di Grassi joins Timo Glock at Virgin Media". Gareth Llewellyn-Stevens. 2009. Retrieved 15 December 2009.
11. "Lucas Di Grassi crashes on way to grid in Japan". BBC Sport (BBC). 10 October 2010. Retrieved 21 October 2011.
12. Noble, Jonathan (21 December 2010). "D'Ambrosio secures Virgin race seat". autosport.com (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 21 December 2010.
13. "Di Grassi confirmed as Pirelli test driver". Formula1.com (Formula One Administration). 6 July 2011. Archived from the original on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 7 July 2011.
14. Lostia, Michele; Tremayne, Sam (5 September 2012). "Lucas di Grassi appointed Formula E development driver". Autosport (Haymarket Publications). Retrieved 5 January 2013.
15. "Pirelli test driver backs Formula E". Crash.net (Crash Media Group). 5 September 2012. Retrieved 5 January 2013.
16. Biesbrouck, Tim (19 December 2013). "'Lucas di Grassi terminates Formula E test job to become a driver'". Retrieved 19 December 2013.

External links

• Lucas di Grassi official website
• Lucas di Grassi career summary at DriverDB.com