As retirement looms, di Grassi is grateful to stand atop one more Formula E podium

Driving for the developing Lola project, and racing in his final Formula E season before retirement, Lucas di Grassi was not expected by many to notch up a win this season. Yet, having won the very first race of the all-electric series on the streets of Beijing back in 2014, there was perhaps no better location than China for the great veteran to stand atop of the podium once again.

In the second race of the Shanghai E-Prix, di Grassi started last on the 20 car grid. With rain a constant factor all weekend, he appeared to roll the dice on the track drying towards the end of the race. As many consumed energy early on thinking they’d have a conservative run in inclement weather towards the end, di Grassi used his experience to have what could perhaps be called a ‘normal’ Formula E race: saving early and pouncing late on.

“We took the right risk today. It was a very tough decision, so I have to thank my team, who supported me with that decision,” di Grassi said. "And then it was a very tough race, so also congratulations to Joel and JEV. They drove a fantastic race, was very hard, and in the end we got everything right, the Attack Mode right, everything right, and that's what sealed the victory in the end.”

He wasn’t the only one to do it. Jean-Eric Vergne, another veteran, and rookie Joel Eriksson employed similar strategies and joined di Grassi on the podium after starting on the second-to-last row of the grid.

“I even discussed with JEV before the race, because we were in the back of the field, we came to JEV and said, ‘Well, what are you going to do? Are you going to go for more dry, more rain?,’” di Grassi said. “And we're like, ‘I don't know.’ It was really a borderline decision, and at one point it was five minutes on the clock, and I had to make a decision, especially on the tire pressures. Then I said to my engineer, ‘Okay, let's go for it.’

“We've pre-agreed before, and it could have well been, ‘Okay, let's not go for it,’ but sometimes in life have to take risks, and when they, in the middle of the race, the race started to come up to our side, we're starting to lap faster than the leaders, half a second, a second faster, and so on, it was clear that was the race was coming to us, so still need to go there and do the job. So it was very hard.”

The win was the 14th for Formula E’s most experienced driver, moving him level with fellow series mainstays Sebastien Buemi and Antonio Felix da Costa, and solidified the record he already held of Formula E's oldest winner at 41 years, 328 days. But it was the first in four years, a time that the former Audi works driver has spent in less-than-competitive machinery, firstly driving Mahindra's uncompetitive initial GEN3 platform for the factory team, then Abt’s short-lived Cupra-branded customer effort before moving over to Lola as it began its time in Formula E.

“I think that represents a lot. It’s very emotional,” di Grassi said of the win. “It has been four years of hard work with cars that are not the most competitive on many occasions, so winning this race, winning the first ever Chinese race – first ever Formula E race – and then closing with a golden key here in China after 12 years is ... it's amazing feeling.

“I would like to thank the team and everybody that supported and worked very hard, even in these harsh circumstances that we know that the car is not competitive. But it's for moments like this that we work for.”

It’s also a first win for Lola. Coming into Formula E right in the middle of the GEN3 ruleset alongside Yamaha and Abt, the revived British brand was always going to be up against it. Nevertheless, with Formula E at times more of a lottery than almost any other top-level series, di Grassi felt that a strong result was never out of the question entirely. In fact, before Sunday’s victory, di Grassi and Lola benefitted from a situation where many drivers were caught out by a now-scrapped rule where they had to use all of their allotted Attack Mode time, but a red flag left many with no time to do so, thus earning them penalties. It allowed di Grassi to finish on the podium in the 2025 Miami E-Prix at Homestead-Miami Speedway.

“I thought that, in Formula E, it’s so competitive that if we do the right thing in one race, for example, if we pit for the Pit Boost under Full Course Yellow, or we do the perfect strategy, if we were able to pull off a podium or fight for a victory,” he said.

“If you ask me, in the start of the grid, I didn't think so, but as the race progressed, and as the timing was getting right, and the strategy was falling towards our lap, our pace, I started believing in it. Then at one point I knew I could do it.

“You have to always remind yourself, I've been four years in cars which are not competitive, so always battling and I've been on the other side. I've been in competitive cars for eight years, so I know the difference. I know how hard it is. So, four years coming at 4 o'clock to the track, working very hard for moments like this, because you know that you're not going to be competitive, so you know that you have to think outside of the box, and you have to take risks, and when the chance comes, you have to take it.

“Sometimes it's one chance in 100 races that I'm going to have this. So today was one of them, and I made sure I took it with both hands.”

Di Grassi is set to retire from competitive motorsport at the end of the Formula E season next month, but with him rolling back the years with victory in Shanghai, could he be regretting that decision?

“No, I had my time,” he insisted. “I've made my decision, and I'm just glad that we managed to accomplish this. Hopefully, we can accomplish a little bit more, closing this chapter in my life with a golden key, and we move towards the next.”