Mahindra Racing has signed former Formula E World Champion Lucas Di Grassi to contest the all-electric series from season nine, with the aim of taking the championship title within the Gen3 era.

Di Grassi, who will join current driver Oliver Rowland (GBR) in the two-car team, replaces Alexander Sims (GBR) who leaves to pursue other opportunities after four seasons in the series and two with the Indian outfit. Together, Di Grassi and Rowland will continue Mahindra Racing’s Gen3 testing programme before embarking on a new era for the series at the start of next year and working towards achieving the team’s World Championship title ambitions.

The 38-year old Brazilian has a well-decorated career – he took the coveted Formula 3 World Championship victory in the Macau GP before going on to finish runner-up in FIA Formula 2 and earning himself a Formula One seat. Post-Formula One, he entered the FIA World Endurance Championship, to take three podiums with multi-Le Mans winning team Audi Team Joest, a programme that overlapped the start of his extremely successful eight-year Formula E racing career.

Dilbagh Gill CEO and Team Principal at Mahindra Racing commented: “There’s no doubt that Lucas is one of the greatest Formula E drivers in the history of the sport – the stats and the silverware do the talking – but, for us, his appeal is much wider than that. We are the only team that has been net carbon zero since inception, earning us the title of The Greenest Team in Motorsport, and it is fundamental to our existence that we are driving forward technological developments in electric mobility with passion and knowledge both on- and off-track. We believe Lucas is perfectly positioned to do this and we are ready to get him bedded into our ground-breaking Gen3 programme within the coming weeks.”