Drugovich finally gets his home-soil racing moment in Formula E with Andretti

This weekend’s Sao Paulo E-Prix won’t just be Felipe Drugovich’s first race for Andretti in Formula E, it will also be his first car race on home soil.

The 2022 Formula 2 champion, like many, has spent much of his career in Europe, climbing the open-wheel ladder there and in more recent seasons competing in sports cars sporadically, thus hasn't raced on home soil since his karting days.

“It’s going to be incredible to be doing my first Formula E race at home in Brazil and in São Paulo,” Drugovich said. “It will be my first time racing in an international, top-tier motorsport race in Brazil, so that means a lot to me and I’m sure it’s going to be a pleasure, especially racing in front of my family who will all be there.

“Hopefully we can put on a show for them. My goals for the season are mainly going to be around getting more and more comfortable with the car and to just keep working on myself and try to improve at every race. Testing went reasonably well, but obviously there is still a lot more to come, so it will be a case of refining everything. Regardless, I’m super excited to get started.”

Drugovich joins Andretti stalwart Jake Dennis as the Briton's seventh new teammate in six seasons and is part of one of seven driver line-ups out of 10 that have been overhauled in the off-season. Team principal Roger Griffiths expects the number of moves to “shake things up” in the field, but he says his own team feels rejuvenated by Drugovich’s arrival as well as a number of engineering changes behind the scenes.

“This upcoming season feels different in some ways as there is a new energy about the team,” he said. “An exciting new driver line-up with their own high expectations for strong results, a revitalized engineering team eager to put the learnings of the off-season to good use and a newfound commercial direction. You can feel the energy resonating throughout the team.

“Since last season, we have also seen a constant evolution of improvement in all areas across the team. The engineering group has made good gains in their understanding of the car, addressing areas that held them back last season, backed up by a strong showing at the Valencia test.

“We can see that the whole field will be highly competitive and probably the closest we will have seen in Formula E. While a number of driver moves will potentially shake things up, I believe that there will be more drivers in the mix for the win at every race, meaning every point available will be hard fought. I don’t see a champion being crowned until the very last race.“