FE: Aguri wants experienced stand-in

Team Aguri is likely to replace Antonio Felix da Costa with someone who has experience in a Formula E car when the series clashes with the DTM in 2016.

Da Costa has dovetailed his Formula E commitments with a BMW drive in the German series for the past two seasons and will stay with the manufacturer this year. The DTM's Red Bull Ring round clashes with Formula E in Berlin, as does Lausitzring with Moscow.

Aguri team boss Mark Preston told Autosport the situation naturally favoured drivers the team had worked with before, such as Sakon Yamamoto and Salvador Duran, who lost his Trulli drive prior to the team's withdrawal in December.

"It could be someone different but the benefit with someone like Sakon, or Salvador, is they've driven the car," Preston said. "You wouldn't want to put someone straight into these cars. A driver with experience would be best, we haven't really thought that far forward yet."

Formula E teams are allowed to make two driver changes per car each season. But these are not supposed to be made in any of the final three rounds to avoid conflicting with a championship fight and Berlin and Moscow are the eighth and ninth events on the 10-round calendar.

In the event of force majeure, a driver change can be made outside of these restrictions, but it would be at the discretion of the championship stewards.

Da Costa could get away with one of the clashes should the date of the Berlin event change. The German round will not take place at the Berlin Tempelhof and the championship is pursuing alternative venues, including the Norisring.

"I'm pushing for a different date for Germany, one week is all I need," said da Costa. "It's a big shame but I put all my effort into Formula E when I'm here. You can't ask me to make racing for a manufacturer like BMW in a championship like DTM to be a second thing."

Originally on Autosport.com