Venturi Racing

The Venturi Racing is a Monegasque motor racing team founded by Venturi Automobiles owner Gildo Pallanca Pastor and American actor Leonardo DiCaprio to compete in the FIA championship for electric cars, Formula E. The team competes with the single-make chassis built by Italian manufacturer Dallara for the inaugural season before exploring its own designs once the regulations are opened up to allow for multiple manufacturers.

History

2014–15 season

For the inaugural season of Formula E, it was announced that the team had signed Nick Heidfeld and Stéphane Sarrazin to drive for them, with Franck Baldet as team coordinator. Heidfeld was running second in the Beijing ePrix on the final lap, but while attempting to pass Nicolas Prost for the lead on the final corner, the two collided, sending both out of the race, Heidfeld alarmingly flying through the air and landing on the roll hoop, which handed the win to Lucas di Grassi. Heidfeld took the team's only podium finish of the season in the Moscow ePrix, with third behind eventual champion Nelson Piquet, Jr and di Grassi. Sarrazin won the final race of the season, but was penalised for exceeding the maximum energy usage, dropping him to 15th. Heidfeld ended the season in 12th position in the standings, with 31 points and Sarrazin was 14th, on 22 points, leaving the team 9th in the standings. Heidfeld left the team at the end of the season to join Mahindra.

2015–16 season

Due to Heidfeld's departure, the team signed 1997 Formula One World Champion Jacques Villeneuve as a teammate to Sarrazin. However, the Canadian left the team after the Punta del Este ePrix after 'disagreeing on the direction of the team'. He was replaced by Mike Conway. Sarrazin outperformed both drivers, scoring points at every race and finishing second behind di Grassi in Long Beach, which was also the scene of Conway's first points finish of the season in 10th place. The team finished in 6th position in the standings, with 77 points. Sarrazin claimed 70 of these to also rank 6th, with Conway claiming the remaining seven to rank 16th. Villeneuve claimed no points and ranked 20th.

2016–17 season

Sarrazin was retained for a third season and FIA GT World Cup driver Maro Engel was signed to the team, with Tom Dillmann filling in for Engel at the Paris ePrix.

2017–18 season

For the fourth season of Formula E, the team re-signed Engel and hired seven time Macau World Cup winner Edoardo Mortara. Mortara claimed the team's first podium since the 2016 Long Beach ePrix with third place at the season opener in Hong Kong, which later became second following the disqualification of Daniel Abt. Dillmann once again filled in part way through the season due to Mortara's DTM commitments.

2018–19 season

In May 2018, the team signed a three-year deal with eleven time Formula One race winner Felipe Massa. and rehired seven time Macau World Cup winner Edoardo Mortara as teammate to Massa. Susie Wolff became the team principal and Franck Baldet became the technical director.

Next Gen Programme

In March 2018, Venturi became the first Formula E team to establish a junior programme. As of May 2018, there are eight drivers in the programme:

Driver		Current Series	Titles
Dorian Boccolacci	2018	GP3 Series	French F4 Junior Champion
Pierre-Louis Chovet	2018	French F4 Championship	n/a
Arthur Leclerc	2018	French F4 Championship	n/a
Benjamin Cartery	2018	Karting	n/a
Louis Iglesias	2018	Karting	n/a
Gaetan Gorant	2018	E-Sport World Championship	E-Sport World Championship
Kevin Leaune	2018	E-Sport World Championship	E-Sport World Championship
Maxime Paine	2018	E-Sport World Championship	E-Sport World Championship

Results

;Notes:

– In the inaugural season, all teams were supplied with a spec powertrain by McLaren.
† – Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
* – Season still in progress.
Other teams supplied by Venturi