Venturi Formula E Team

This article is about the race team Venturi Formula E Team. For the manufacturer see this article: Venturi Automobiles.

Venturi Formula E Team
Team Information
Based	Monte Carlo, Monaco
Début	2014 Beijing ePrix
Founder	Leonardo DiCaprio; Gildo Pallanca Pastor; Francesco Costa; Bert Hedaya
Key People	Unknown
Driver(s)	Edoardo Mortara (No.4) Maro Engel (No.5)
Car	Venturi VM200-FE-03
Sponsor(s)	Unknown
Website	Venturi
Team Stats
Last Season	9th (29 pt(s))
Entries	100
Wins	8
First Win
Points	804
Poles	3
Podiums	21
Fastest Laps	6
Titles	Unknown
Current Season
Entrant	Venturi Formula E Team
Edoardo Mortara		Maro Engel
14th (39 Pt(s))		– (0 Pt(s))
Team Standings
– (0 Pt(s))

 

The Venturi Formula E Team are an entrant in the 2017/18 FIA Formula E Championship, racing as the factory team of Venturi Automobiles. One of the Series' founding members, Venturi are the only team based in Monaco, and have featured in every edition of the FE Series.

A very well respected, if unspectacular, team in FE, Venturi have had a close association with Mercedes, having supported several Mercedes backed drivers and partnered with HWA in 2017/18. Furthermore, Susie Wolff, wife of Mercedes GP boss Toto Wolff, became team principle and a major investor ahead of the 2018/19 season.

Background

The Venturi Formula E Team was founded in Monaco by DiCaprio, Gildo Pallanca Pastor, Francesco Costa, Bert Hedaya, with the aim of bringing Venturi Automobiles' experience in building the current record holder in the Bonneville Salt Flats for an electric car. Venturi intend to become a manufacturer in the championship from the second season onwards.

Formula E History

Venturi were the only Monaco based team to be entered for the inaugural season, with Nick Heidfeld and Stéphane Sarrazin as their drivers for the year. The team ran four Spark-Renault SRT_01Es for their drivers, although the pair suffered their fair amount of misfortune throughout the season. A strong start looked to be on the cards for Heidfeld right from the get go, until the German was taken out by Nicolas Prost at the season opening 2014 Beijing ePrix in a move that could have given him victory.

Heidfeld often found himself on the wrong side of penalties throughout the season too, losing out while leading the 2015 Buenos Aires ePrix because of a pitlane infringement. Sarrazin, meanwhile, proved to be a semi-consistent point scorer, albeit at the lower end of the points, until Venturi's fortunes seemingly turned in Moscow. Heidfeld finally took a podium finish that his pace had arguably earned him throughout the season, although their moment in the sun was brief.

The London double header that ended the season rather summed up their season, although the driver's respective roles were reversed. For Heidfeld, missing out on points and a retirement were his return, while Sarrazin was penalised for using too much energy, having crossed the line first in the season ending 2015 London ePrix II.

Season Supplier

For the 2015/16 season, Sarrazin would be retain by the team, who also made headlines by signing 1997 Formula One world champion Jacques Villeneuve, who replaced an outgoing Nick Heidfeld. Owners Venturi Automobiles also announced that they would be supplying powertrains to Dragon Racing, leading to an intense intra-team battle between the Monegasques and the Americans. The first blows would be exchanged at the 2015 Donington Test, with the American squad ending the test period as the faster of the two teams.

It would still be advantage Dragon at the first race of the season, with Venturi only managing to grab ninth place courtesy of Sarrazin. The Frenchman then put together a strong display to take fourth in Putrajaya, before again ending up in ninth at the 2015 Punta del Este ePrix. It was in Punta del Este where Villeneuve decided to quit the team, the Canadian believing he was wasting his time sitting at the back of the field, with Venturi calling upon Mike Conway to fill their second seat.

It would be a slow start for Conway who, like Villenuve before him, failed to record points as Sarrazin continued his pattern of ninth-fourth-ninth finishes. Then the Frenchman put together one of the best performances of the season to claim second at the 2016 Long Beach ePrix, although this result was overshadowed by the fact that Dragon racing had won the previous round in 2016 Mexico City ePrix. Conway also forced himself onto the board in Long Beach, as Venturi tried to propel themselves into the top half of the table before the end of the season.

Unfortunately for the Monte Carlo squad, the rest of the season would only see a minor return of points, with Sarrazin often slipping back from strong starting positions. Conway, meanwhile, could only extract two more points finishes before the end of the season, and come seasons end Venturi were down in sixth, with almost half the number of points of "sister" team Dragon.

German connection

The 2016/17 season saw Venturi obtain greater funding through a German backer, prompting the team to replace Conway with experienced GT racer Maro Engel. They also became the only team supplied by their owners, with the new car making its public bow at the 2016 Donington Test. Unfortunately, although the car was an improvement on the previous season's effort, both Sarrazin and Engel found themselves in the lower reaches of the field on outright pace.

DTM Dreams

For 2017/18 Venturi would retain Engel, partnering him and 2010 European Formula 3 Champion and seven time Macau Grand Prix winner Edoardo Mortara. The later's inclusion in the Venturi team came as part of a step-up of interest by Mercedes, with the Italian/Swiss racer continuing to race with the "three pointed star" in the DTM in 2018. Furthermore, Mercedes would arrange that their affiliate DTM race team, HWA, would work alongside Venturi in 2017/18, ahead of their debut in 2018/19.

After a quiet pre-season test in Valencia, Mortara would cause a stir at the opening round in Hong Kong, leading the majority of the second race only to throw away victory while chasing fastest lap. The Swiss racer did manage to recover to claim second, recording Venturi's best ever FE finish, while Engel backed him up with a seventh place finish. Unfortunately for them the team would not hit the same heights in Marrakech, with a pointless weekend resulting as both Mortara and Engel made mistakes in qualifying.

Unsurprisingly, given their Mercedes connections, the Venturi team handed Mercedes DTM racer Gary Paffett a drive at the 2018 Rookie Test, alongside Moroccan born racer Michael Benyahia. Engel and Mortara then returned to action in Santiago, although another pointless weekend would see Engel retire. Indeed, the following races would see Venturi only manage to pick up a handful of points, before Engel found some pace to finish fourth at the 2018 Paris E-Prix.

Ahead of the 2018 Berlin E-Prix it was announced that Tom Dillmann would be standing in for Mortara, whose talent's were required in the DTM for Mercedes. Yet it would be a pointless return for Dillmann, with the Frenchman thoroughly out-paced by Engel, with Mortara returning for his home race in Zürich. Unfortunately for Mortara it would be a miserable home race as he retired early on with a suspension failure, while Engel missed out on points during the late race confusion following a FCY.

Heading into the 2017/18 season finale in New York City Venturi would announce a reshuffle of their leadership team, with ex-DTM racer Susie Wolff announced as team principle. Wolff's arrival was not immediate, however, with the Scotswoman only sitting in with the team during the New York weekend. Furthermore the team would be without Mortara for the weekend, with the Swiss racer deciding to focus on his DTM programme rather than battle to finish in the top ten in FE.

Dillmann therefore returned for the season finale, and duly stunned his potential future employers by finishing fourth in the first race, matching his best ever finish. Engel, meanwhile, would play a pivitol role in the Championship by fending off Sam Bird in the closing stages, meaning the Brit would lose out on the title to Jean-Éric Vergne. Unfortunately for Venturi their two drivers would both retire from the final race of the season, having struggled in a wet qualifying session.

Viva Brazil

2018/19 would be an evolutionary season for Venturi, with a new team principle in the form of Susie Wolff, and the addition of veteran racer Felipe Massa to their driver line-up. Furthermore, parent company Venturi Automobiles would be supplying a sister team, with HWA joining the series as an eleventh team.

Venturi Next Gen Programme

During the 2017/18 season the Venturi team launched their "Next Gen Programme", essentially a young driver academy aimed at getting young drivers into Formula E. Established on the 3 March 2018, the "Next Gen Programme" signed several promising young talents including Arthur Leclerc and Dorian Boccolacci, both race winners in junior formulae. The programme also included a number of eSports champions and young karters, with all members getting time in the Venturi simulator as well as their physical and mental training facilities.

Formula E Record

The tables below show Venturi Formula E Team's full record in the FIA Formula E Championship.

Formula E Entries

The table below gives an overview of Venturi Formula E Team's entries in Formula E:

Venturi Formula E Team's overall Formula E Record
Season	Official name	No.	Drivers	DC Pos.	DC Pts.	Car	TC Pos.	TC Pts.
2014/15	Venturi Formula E Team	23	Nick Heidfeld	12th	31	Spark-Renault SRT_01E	9th	53
		30	Stéphane Sarrazin	14th	22
2015/16	Venturi Formula E Team	4	Stéphane Sarrazin	6th	70	Venturi VM200-FE-01	6th	77
		12	Jacques Villeneuve	20th	0
		12	Mike Conway	16th	7
2016/17	Venturi Formula E Team	4*	Stéphane Sarrazin	10th	36	Venturi VM200-FE-02	9th	29
		4†	Tom Dillmann	19th	11
		5	Maro Engel	17th	16
2017/18	Venturi Formula E Team	4	Edoardo Mortara	13th	29	Venturi VM200-FE-03	7th	72
		4	Tom Dillmann	18th	12
		5	Maro Engel	12th	31

• * Sarrazin raced for Techeetah from the 2017 Berlin ePrix I onwards.
• ^† Dillmann used #5 as his race number at the 2017 Paris ePrix.

Career Results

Listed below are the full career results of Venturi Formula E Team:

FIA Formula E Championship Record
Year	Driver	Rounds												Pos.	Pts.
		1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
2014/15														9th	53
	Heidfeld	13th	DSQ	10th	8th	12th	11th	10th	5th	3rd	13th	Ret
	Sarrazin	9th	12th	Ret	10th	Ret	10th	7th	6th	14th	10th	15th
2015/16														6th	77
	Sarrazin	9th	4th	9th	4th	9th	2nd	5th	10th	CAN	12th	5th
	Villeneuve	14th	11th	DNS						CAN
	Conway				15th	12th	10th	14th	8th	CAN	10th	13th
2016/17														9th	29
	Sarrazin	10th	12th	12th	15th	15th	10th
	Engel	9th	NC	Ret	Ret	5th		9th	Ret	Ret	Ret	12th	18th
	Dillmann						8th	19th	15th	13th	7th	10th	10th
2017/18														7th	72
	Mortara	7th	2nd	17th	13th	8th	17th	10th	13th		Ret
	Engel	13th	7th	12th	Ret	16th	10th	8th	4th	8th	11th	8th	Ret
	Dillmann									13th		4th	Ret

References

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