Kobayashi, Audi and Hugo Boss: the latest news in Formula E
The first e-Prix of the season is fast approaching, a look back at the latest information from the all-electric championship.
Kamui Kobayashi will make his debut with Andretti in Hong Kong:
The Japanese driver Kamui Kobayashi has been announced by the Andretti team as a driver for the 2017-2018 season in car number 27 alongside Antonio Félix Da Costa. He will make his debut in the discipline in Hong Kong on December 2 and 3. The driver is not unknown to motorsport enthusiasts as he was a Formula 1 driver from 2009 to 2012 with the Toyota and Sauber teams and then in 2014 with Caterham. The Japanese driver has also been a Toyota endurance driver since 2016 and has been racing in Japanese Super Formula since 2015. Initially, the provisional entry list for the season included the name of the 23-year-old British DTM driver Tom Blomqvist, although the team never officially confirmed him. He had also participated in pre-season testing in Valencia. The team’s title sponsor, MS&AD, a major Japanese insurer, insisted on having a national driver, which led the American team to change its plans.
Audi’s Technical Director on Departure:
The team of the brand with the rings will lose an important member of its engineering team in the person of Franco Chiocchetti, who is also the engineer of Lucas Di Grassi. The departure of the engineer does not yet have a precise date but he should not leave the team before the first race of the season. This represents a significant loss for the team, which is now 100% controlled by Audi, as he greatly contributed to the car’s development and had been working within the German firm since 2001, where he worked both in DTM and GT. To replace him, the team will draw from the members of its current program.
:
The German clothing brand, which has been involved in Formula 1 as a sponsor for over 30 years, notably with McLaren from 1981 to 2014 and then with Mercedes from 2015 to today, has decided to reorient its strategy towards Formula E. Instead of becoming a sponsor of one of the championship’s teams, the brand has decided to get involved as the official clothing sponsor of the series. This status involves the appearance of the company’s logo on the official Formula E clothing, on the championship’s demonstration car, as well as trackside.
