The Venturi Racing Formula E Team Championship has been sold to an investor group led by the brother-in-law of co-founder Alejandro Agag, but Susie Wolf will remain as the team’s principal.
Venturi has been the mainstay of the FE since the start of the 2014-15 season, with driver Eduardo Mortara winning the team’s first – and so far only in the 2019 Hong Kong E-Prix.
The Monegasque squad is now bought by Scott Svid and Jose Maria Azner Botella, son of the former prime minister of Spain and sister-in-law of Jo FI creator Agag.
Wolf, who joined as team principal in June 2018, will be in his role alongside newly-appointed deputy team principal and former Mahindra FE driver Jerome de Ambrosio.
Sweden, who holds the presidency of Venturi, said he and his supporters were evaluating running in Formula 1 three years ago, but the delay in implementing the cost price cap was a factor seen elsewhere.
Speaking as part of a consultation with selected media outlets, Sweden said: “Every one of my problems in Formula 1, Formula E solved all the problems as a business case – in terms of competition, ability to make money, fair and fair winning chances.
“Alejandro has set this as anti-Formula 1.
“I never looked at Formula E, but Jose and I were looking at this place and we met Susie. [in December 2019] And that was it. “
Udi D and BMW announced that they would leave the FE at the end of the 2020-21 season a week later, adding that Mercedes’ overall participation in the series was more important than Venturi’s standing as a German manufacturer’s powertrain customer.
Plus: Why BMW and Udi DA have pulled the plug on Formula E.
Wolfe added: “Scott and Jose’s investment experience will strengthen the team’s capabilities and give us interesting new perspectives and opportunities for the future.
“The move also demonstrates the positive role to play in the next cost cap in business viability and therefore appeals to investors and partners of the game.”
The investment concerns only the Venturi FI team, not the Venturi obile tomobiles, which aim to break the electric land speed record and have a renewed space program for which the team’s founder, Guildo Pallanka Pastor, will be in control.
“As my focus shifts away from the competition to the proven arena, where we continue to raise the bar with record-breaking electromobility, and toward the sky with our similar pioneering space efforts, I know the team is in very safe hands.” The pastor said.
Sweden also confirmed that Venturi’s decision to withdraw its provisional entry from the first Extreme E season in 2021 – relocating it – was a different decision taken by Venturi Om Tomobiles.
The rocket will remain in place as the title sponsor for the 2020-21 season, for which Venturi has encouraged reserve driver Norman NATO to replace former F1 driver Felipe Massa with Mortara.
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