Lucas di Grassi

Di Grassi struggled at the Chinese Grand Prix which had him start from the pit lane. He circulated behind HRT driver Karun Chandhok until he retired with clutch failure after completing nine laps. Further issues arose in Spain as di Grassi battled with car setup and was the last driver to finish the race, and retired early in Monaco due to his right-rear wheel becoming loose at his pit stop. At the Turkish Grand Prix, problems striking multiple Cosworth-engine cars elevated di Grassi to 19th although he had to manage his engine to finish it. Hydraulics issues further afflicted him in Canada but still managed to finish the race and only needed one pit stop to reach the conclusion of the European Grand Prix two weeks later before a further hydraulics issue ended his participation in the British Grand Prix after nine laps.

Di Grassi won the 2019 Mexico City ePrix by overtaking Pascal Wehrlein a few meters before the chequered flag. He also won in Berlin later that year and would end the season 3rd overall in the standings.

Di Grassi was offered a contract to race for Toyota at the 2017 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and the 24 Hours of Le Mans but he was not granted clearance by Audi to race in LMP1. He was later slated to co-drive the No. 51 AF Corse Ferrari 488 GTE at Le Mans but was ruled out due to an ankle injury he sustained in a football match. In October 2017, di Grassi was announced as one of sixteen drivers selected to participate in the Audi Sport TT Cup series-ending Race of Legends at the Hockenheimring. He finished in second after battling with Frank Stippler for the victory in the race's final laps. The following month, di Grassi returned to Macau for the first time in five years to compete in the FIA GT World Cup in an Audi R8 LMS fielded by HCB-Rutronik Racing. He was involved in a multi-car pile up in the first lap of the qualifying race, but was cleared by doctors for the following day's main race. Di Grassi retired following an accident on the sixth lap. He joined Mazda Team Joest in its No. 77 Mazda DPi for the 2018 WeatherTech SportsCar Championship season-ending Petit Le Mans alongside Oliver Jarvis and Tristan Nunez in October 2018.

Di Grassi continued with Audi Sport ABT for the 2017–18 Formula E season. He had a poor start to his campaign, scoring no points in the first four races due to multiple problems relating to his car's powertrain, but took his first top-ten finish of the season at the Mexico City round, coming ninth. Thereafter, he took seven consecutive podium finishes which included successive victories in the Zürich ePrix and the first New York City race. Di Grassi finished second in the Drivers' Championship with 144 points and his and teammate Abt's form throughout the season helped Audi win their first Teams' Championship from Techeetah. After the season, he said to Autosport that he believed his standard of driving had improved from the previous season and called his comeback " a miracle", "The difficult part was not to get that mental spiral that you doubt yourself or anything during these first four or five races. I think I drove better this year than I drove last year because I didn't do any mistakes".

For the third consecutive year, he shared the No. 21 RCM Motorsport Chevrolet Sonic with Thiago Camilo in the season-opening Stock Car Brasil round which in 2016 was held at the Autódromo Internacional de Curitiba; the duo came fourteenth. Di Grassi's WEC campaign started badly when his car's hybrid system failed at the season-opening 6 Hours of Silverstone, but recovered to take advantage of problems striking the LMP1 field to secure his first outright victory in the series at Spa-Francorchamps. Variable weather conditions were dealt with at Le Mans but the trio spent thirty-nine minutes in the pit lane to replace brakes and settled for third overall after the No. 5 Toyota TS050 Hybrid was not classified for failing to complete the final lap. On Audi's orders, di Grassi took part in the Norisring round of the Audi Sport TT Cup as a guest driver, finishing second in the first race and won the second.

During the off season, di Grassi became the first person to drive an electric car on the Arctic polar ice cap in an area of Northern Greenland and produced a video clip that promotes awareness of global warming. He opened the first three races of the 2016-17 season with a second place at the inaugural Hong Kong ePrix and followed this up with a fifth position in Marrakesh and clinched another podium in the Buenos Aires round with a third place finish. After being involved in a first lap accident which necessitated a change of rear wing at the Mexico City race, di Grassi then made the switch into his second car which meant he would have to conserve electrical energy towards the race's end. However, circumstances including a safety car meant he held onto the lead to clinch his first victory of the season and was now five points in arrears of Buemi. A month later in Monaco, he launched an attack on Buemi for the win in the closing stages of the ePrix but was unable to get ahead and took second place.

Di Grassi, however, struggled in the Paris ePrix as he made contact with the Andretti car of António Félix da Costa and later crashed out. His performance at the first double header of the season at Berlin reduced Buemi's championship lead from a season-high forty-three points to thirty-two. Di Grassi then accumulated a further twenty-two points at the July New York City ePrix to be ten points behind Buemi (who missed the race due to a World Endurance Championship commitment at the Nürburgring) heading into the season-closing double header in Montreal two weeks later. He clinched the pole position for the first ePrix which he won and came seventh in the second. In addition, di Grassi took advantage of Buemi performing poorly in both races to win his first Drivers' Championship. He was named CEO of Roborace on 13 September having served as an adviser since 2016. Di Grassi was one of six drivers shortlisted for the 2017 Autosport International Racing Driver Award. On 6 December, di Grassi was voted the Brazilian Driver of the Year by readers of Grande Prêmio.

To start 2014, he raced the No. 21 RCM Motorsport Chevrolet Sonic alongside Thiago Camilo for the opening round of the Stock Car Brasil season at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace; the duo retired on the first lap due to a clutch failure. Di Grassi was retained by Audi for 2014 and was promoted to a full-time racing seat. He was selected to replace the retired McNish in the No. 1 Audi and shared it with Kristensen and Duval. Di Grassi started the season by retiring due to chassis damage arising from a crash at the 6 Hours of Silverstone, but recovered to finish second overall at Spa-Francorchamps. Although the No. 1 Audi's fuel injectors and turbocharger were replaced, di Grassi, Kristensen and Duval took second at Le Mans three laps adrift of André Lotterer, Benoît Tréluyer and Marcel Fässler's winning car. After another second position at the Circuit of the Americas, he clinched a hat-trick of fifth-places before ending with a podium at the season-closing 6 Hours of São Paulo. The trio's results ranked them ninth in the drivers' standings with 117 points.

Formula E promoter Alejandro Agag sought di Grassi's technological expertise as a driver to develop the series' electric race car. He was initially dubious as he was not convinced that electric car racing would be exciting but reconsidered after hearing its socially-oriented goal to develop attractive environmentally friendly vehicles. A year later, di Grassi was announced as the official test driver for Formula E. He first tested the prototype Formula E car, called Formulec, at Circuit de L'Eure near Paris in August 2012, and was heavily involved in the development of the vehicle. Di Grassi later terminated his contract as test driver to race in the series. On 13 February 2014, di Grassi was announced to be competing in the inaugural Formula E season with Audi Sport ABT alongside his campaign in the World Endurance Championship. His teammate is the former GP2 driver Daniel Abt.

In September 2014, di Grassi won the first race of the season in Beijing, the first driver to win an all-electric motor race. He recorded two more consecutive podiums in Putrajaya with a second place finish, and in Punta del Este with third place to give him the lead in the championship. However, di Grassi had bad luck with a suspension failure in Buenos Aires, causing him to retire from the lead, and technical issues caused him to finish ninth in Miami, to lose the championship lead. He bounced back by finishing in third position at Long Beach, and second place in Monaco to give himself a four-point lead with four rounds to go. Di Grassi's championship took a blow when he was disqualified from victory due to illegal modifications to his front wing endplates in Berlin; with second place in Moscow to Nelson Piquet Jr., di Grassi entered the season-ending double-header in London seventeen points in arrears. He finished fourth and sixth in the two races in London, one place ahead of Piquet each time. As a result, the driver finished eleven points behind Piquet and lost second to Sébastien Buemi, who won the first race. Di Grassi, however, managed the most podium finishes of any driver with six.

Di Grassi made his endurance racing debut at the 2012 24 Hours of Nürburgring, driving the No. 69 Dörr Motorsport McLaren MP4-12C GT3, and was joined by Rudi Adams, Chris Goodwin and Jochen Übler. The quartet retired after eleven laps from multiple problems. He made his first appearance in the World Endurance Championship (WEC) at the 6 Hours of São Paulo, competing for Audi Sport Team Joest in place of Rinaldo Capello who retired after the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Di Grassi drove the No. 2 Audi R18 e-tron quattro alongside Tom Kristensen and Allan McNish, finishing third overall. Afterwards, he entered the International V8 Supercars Championship for the Armor All Gold Coast 600 round, partnering Michael Patrizi at Tekno Autosports in a Holden VE Commodore, finishing eleventh in the first race, but missed the second after Patrizi heavily damaged the car in qualifying. In November, di Grassi returned to Macau to compete in the GT Cup, driving the AF Corse Ferrari 458 GT3, taking second after battling Edoardo Mortara for the win.

Based on his performance in São Paulo, Audi offered di Grassi a contract in late 2012 which he accepted. He replaced Marco Bonanomi whom Audi released. Audi announced in January 2013 that di Grassi was selected to race for the team in the opening round of the 2013 American Le Mans Series, the 12 Hours of Sebring. He again teamed up with Kristensen and McNish, finishing second overall after exchanging the lead several times with the sister Audi. Shortly after the 6 Hours of Silverstone, Audi announced that di Grassi would be racing an experimental car at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps and the 24 Hours of Le Mans alongside Oliver Jarvis and Marc Gené. The trio took third place in an Audi clean sweep of the podium. At Le Mans, despite a puncture in the race's opening hours, he, Jarvis and Gené took a second consecutive third place finish as Kristensen, McNish and Loïc Duval's No. 2 Audi secured the overall victory. Di Grassi, Jarvis and Gené finished ninth in the World Endurance Drivers' Championship. In late August, di Grassi drove the Audi RS5 DTM at a test session, held at the Red Bull Ring.

At the inaugural Korean Grand Prix, di Grassi lost control of his car while trying to overtake Hispania driver Sakon Yamamoto and crashed into the barriers on the 26th lap. He struggled with further problems with his suspension at his home race in Brazil, and despite his team's mechanics rectifying the issue at his mid-race pit stop, he was not classified in the final results. At the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, di Grassi chose to make a pit stop for new tyres during a safety car period and managed them until the end of the race. He ended the season 24th in the Drivers' Championship and scored no points. On 19 December, di Grassi won the Desafio Internacional das Estrelas, a karting event organised by Felipe Massa. Two days later, he was left without a drive, after Virgin announced d'Ambrosio to partner Glock in 2011.

In 2011, di Grassi re-organised his management and sought a Pirelli tyre testing role. This was attained on 6 July and he developed Pirelli's Formula One tyres for the 2011 season, and drove the company's Toyota TF109 test car in five test sessions in order to develop the next generation of tyres, as well as attending several race weekends where he collected information about tyre performance and attended technical briefings. In late 2011, he was among two drivers vying for a seat with Peugeot and tested for the team at the Circuit Paul Ricard and the Ciudad del Motor de Aragón in October. Di Grassi was close to signing a contract with Peugeot but the manufacturer withdrew from sports car racing in January 2012 because of financial difficulties. He remained with Pirelli for the 2012 season alongside the former Toro Rosso driver Jaime Alguersuari to help develop tyres for the 2013 season and beyond using a Renault R30 chassis. The chassis was upgraded to the 2012 requirements for Alguersuari and di Grassi to run the car across four development tests during the course of the season at the Circuito de Jerez, Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps, Autodromo Nazionale Monza and the Circuit de Catalunya to help Pirelli improve its selection of tyres.

Di Grassi drove in Formula One with the Virgin Racing team in 2010 but was outperformed by his teammate Glock and was dropped for the following season. He was subsequently employed by Pirelli in mid-2011 as their official tyre tester and developed the company's next generation of tyres. Di Grassi continued this role into 2012. For the next four seasons, he drove for Audi Sport Team Joest in the FIA World Endurance Championship and took a best finish of second with two victories in 2016. Since 2014, di Grassi has raced in Formula E and has scored ten victories and won the 2016–17 Drivers' Championship.

Di Grassi sought to race in Formula One in 2009 with Renault and speculation arose in the motor sport press over him replacing fellow countryman Nelson Piquet Jr. after the latter's poor performance compared to his teammate Fernando Alonso. Renault looked at running either di Grassi or fellow test driver Romain Grosjean for the season, but eventually chose to keep Piquet and Alonso. He along with the 2008 GP2 Series runner-up Bruno Senna were strongly considered by Ross Brawn to drive for Honda. The pair tested the Honda RA108 at the Circuit de Catalunya in mid-November which had di Grassi lap within half a second of Senna's pace. After Honda withdrew from Formula One due to the global financial crisis, Brawn elected for experience over youth by retaining Rubens Barrichello.

Di Grassi was announced as one of two drivers of the brand new Virgin Racing team on 15 December 2009 and would be partnered by his former GP2 Series rival Timo Glock in a deal predicted by BBC Radio Sheffield. An important factor in his decision was the chance to work with John Booth, the Virgin team principal. It was reported by The Daily Telegraph that di Grassi had also provided Virgin with £5 million worth of sponsorship. Writing in The Guardian's 2010 Formula One supplement, Alan Henry and Rob Bagchi predicted that Glock would outperform di Grassi throughout the season. He retired from the opening two rounds of the season (Bahrain and Australia) due to hydraulic problems. However his fortunes improved at Sepang where he took his first (and best finish) of the season with a 14th in spite of having to do the second half of the race in fuel conservation mode due to pick-up and fuel capacity problems.

Di Grassi had no intentions of remaining in GP2 for 2008 as due to his relationship with Renault he was developing the series's new Dallara GP2/08 chassis in addition to his Formula One test and reserve driver duties. However, he resumed his GP2 career that year by securing a drive at Campos Racing from round four onwards, replacing the 2007 Formula Renault 3.5 Series runner-up Ben Hanley. With three-second places and one fourth-place finish, di Grassi was the highest-scoring driver over the first two race meetings in which he took part. Two wins followed and he briefly looked set for a surprising championship challenge, before a final lap collision with Giorgio Pantano (who was disqualified for the incident) at Spa-Francorchamps effectively ended di Grassi's hopes. He finished an eventual third, ten points behind Pantano despite six fewer races.

He founded the fuel conservation non-governmental organisation Smarter Driving in 2007 and was appointed the United Nations Environment Programme's clean air ambassador in 2018. Di Grassi partakes in triathlons to maintain his fitness and balance his racing career. He is also a member of the high IQ society Mensa. In addition to his native Portuguese, he is fluent in English, Italian, Spanish and has basic knowledge of French.

2006 brought di Grassi to the next stage of his career as he entered the GP2 Series support series with the unsuccessful Durango team and was partnered by the Spanish driver Sergio Hernández. While his local rival Nelson Piquet Jr. battled Lewis Hamilton for the championship, di Grassi struggled with a noncompetitive car and could only muster eight points throughout the course of the season. With assistance from the Renault Formula One team, he signed a contract to race for ART Grand Prix in the 2007 season in December 2006 and was partnered for the first round by Michael Ammermüller. He scored points consistently throughout the season, failing to score only once in the first thirteen races. Despite not winning a race in that time, it put di Grassi in contention for the championship along with iSport driver Timo Glock.

He elected to move to the United Kingdom in 2004 so he could take part in the British Formula Three Championship with Hitech Racing. Di Grassi won both races at the Thruxton meeting but the remainder of the season was difficult for him and could only muster eighth in the final standings in spite of good qualifying performances. He was invited to race in the season-ending Macau Grand Prix and came third. Di Grassi graduated to the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2005 with Manor Motorsport but started the season with a major accident at the Hockenheimring where he attempted to pass Giedo van der Garde but clipped the latter's rear-left wheel. He launched into the air and rolled several times before resting in the tyre barrier. Di Grassi recovered to have a solid season and took a lights-to-flag victory at the Oschersleben and came third in the championship. He took a third-place finish at the Masters of Formula 3, and won the end-of-the season Macau Grand Prix from third on the grid by passing Robert Kubica shortly after a safety car restart in the closing stages of the event.

Born in São Paulo, di Grassi began racing karts at the age of ten, and achieved early success in the regional and later national kart series. He progressed to car racing in 2002 and was the runner up in the Formula Renault 2.0 Brazil and Formula 3 Sudamericana championships. Di Grassi took two consecutive victories in the 2004 British Formula Three Championship and progressed to the Euro Series the following year which saw him clinch a solitary race victory and was the winner of the non-championship Macau Grand Prix. After that, he spent the next three years in the GP2 Series where he won four races and finished the runner-up in 2007 to Timo Glock.

Upon the invitation of his father, Vito, the former vice-president of the Brazilian heavy vehicles manufacturer Engesa, di Grassi made his karting debut at the age of ten. He won a karting series in São Paulo in 1997, and continued to progress upwards through the South American karting series by winning several races in his native country. The peak of di Grassi's karting career came in 2000 when he placed fifth overall in the Formula A World Championship. That year, he won the Pan American Kart Championship. Di Grassi made his car racing debut in 2002, driving in the Formula Renault 2.0 Brazil, finishing the season with two victories, and placed seven points behind the series victor Sérgio Jimenez. In 2003, he switched to the Formula 3 Sudamericana and joined the Avellone team. Di Grassi took one victory and stood on the podium eleven times, en route to second in the championship, behind the more experienced Danilo Dirani, despite missing the season's final six races due to him injuring his neck in an accident he sustained in Curitiba.

Lucas Tucci di Grassi (born 11 August 1984) is a Brazilian racing driver who competes in the all-electric FIA Formula E Championship for Audi Sport ABT Schaffler. He became the FIA Formula E World Champion in 2016-2017, also achieved 3 overall podiums and best result ever for a Brazilian driver at Le Mans 24h, including a FIA WEC Vice World Championship in 2016, competed in FIA Formula 1 in 2010, Vice-Champion in FIA Formula 2 and World Champion of FIA Formula 3 at the Macau GP in 2005.

Di Grassi was born on 11 August 1984 in São Paulo, Brazil. He is of Italian descent through his grandfather who came from Polignano a Mare. Di Grassi's family did not have a background in motor racing but his uncle owned a go-kart shop and di Grassi visited him driving go-karts every weekend between the ages of seven and eight. He was educated at the local Santa Cruz High School and later went on to graduate with a degree in Economics after his second year at the private business university Ibmec. Di Grassi married the designer Bianca Diniz Caloi in a ceremony held in the São Paulo municipality of Itirapina on 1 December 2013. He currently resides in Monaco. On 3 July 2018, di Grassi became a father with the birth of his son Leonardo.