Team ABT Sportsline
Drivers Lucas di Grassi & Daniel Abt
Team Principal Hans-Jurgen Abt
2014/15 Championship 3rd
The Abt name has been around 25 years in high-level motorsport, although has never really ventured out of Germany until the Formula E Championship came around last year.
You could say that the Abt family is somewhat of a motor racing dynasty, with a number of generations all taking part in the sport. Starting with Johann Abt over 100 years ago, and now in the fourth generation, his son Hans-Jurgen Abt is now the managing director. Hans-Jurgen is also Daniel Abt’s dad, completing the line within the team.
Quite like AMG to Mercedes, Abt has long had a connection to the VW group, and, in particular, the German Touring Car series. Starting in 1991, the team grew in the ‘Super Touring’ era, before growing into the modern DTM series, being the works Audi operation. They have won multiple championships in the process and are still one of the leading teams in the championship.
Driver Name Lucas di Grassi
Nationality Brazilian
Date of Birth 11/08/1984
Formula E Races 11
Formula E Wins 1
2014/15 Championship 3rd – 133 points
Lucas di Grassi was one of the most successful drivers last season in Formula E, although only managed a single win in the opener in Beijing. The journey to get here though was rather slow for the Brazilian.
Starting off in 2002 driving in the Formula Renault 2.0 series, he quickly progressed to Formula Three. As was the route for many Brazilians, it was first in the British series, before progressing to the EuroSeries a year later in 2005. The second year in Formula Three was a success, winning the Macau Grand Prix, the flagship Formula Three event, and coming third in the overall series. It also gave him a taste of Formula One, testing for Renault during the 2005 season.
He made the jump straight away to GP2, with a very modest first season for Durango. He finished 17th, but it was a talented crop with Lewis Hamilton winning the championship from Nelson Piquet Jr, the eventual season one Formula E champion.
2007 saw a change of team for di Grassi, driving for ART in place of Lewis Hamilton who had then moved to Formula One, and proved to be more successful. Ending the season with a couple of wins, he finished second behind Timo Glock. Two further seasons in GP2 saw him finish third in the championship.
He was picked up by Virgin Racing to drive in their first season in Formula One and was partnered against former rival Timo Glock, who had already a wealth of experience having driven for Jordan and Toyota. In somewhat of a difficult year, he had a best finish of 14th, before being dropped in favour of Jerome D’Ambrosio at the end of the year.
After a year of being Pirelli’s official test driver, di Grassi moved on to the World Endurance Championship and the leading Audi team. A 3rd in 2013 and a 2nd in 2014 have been the best results for the Brazilian at Le Mans. He continues to dovetail driving for Audi in the championship, along with the Formula E series where he will be a championship favourite for the second season.
Driver Name Daniel Abt
Nationality German
Date of Birth 03/12/1992
Formula E Races 11
Formula E Wins 0
2014/15 Championship 11th – 32 points
Daniel Abt is one of the new generation of drivers, being one of the youngest in the series at just 22 years old. He has therefore had one of the more ‘modern’ career progressions, competing in some high profile categories.
Having driven with the backing of his family from the very beginning, the German first started in Formel Masters in 2008. You could say it is similar to Formula BMW or Formula Ford of its generation. He won the series in his second year before moving on to the ever familiar Formula Three.
First starting in Germany where he had a great first season, only losing out to the talented Tom Dillmann before moving on to the EuroSeries in 2011. The jump up wasn’t as successful, only finishing the third best driver within his team, en route to 7th in the championship.
A switch to the Formula One support series GP3 in 2012 was a lot more successful with a couple of feature race wins in Italy and Belgium for another runner-up position in the championship. He had a couple of outings in the Renault 3.5 series at the end of the year as well but failed to score points in both events.
Abt made another jump in 2013 to GP2, and to race for the successful ART team alongside James Calado. He was thoroughly outperformed by Calado, who eventually went on to finish third in the championship, the German only collecting 11 points though the whole season. A switch to Hilmer last year brought slightly better results, before moving on to Formula E.
Compared to his most recent form, Abt has done well in Formula E, where he finished 11th in the first season, looking settled in his home team. To supplement the Formula E series, he has also been driving for Rebellion in the World Endurance Championship, where against the large manufacturers in LMP1 he has been putting in some decent performances.
