Lucas di Grassi has responded to Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko who dismissed a future Formula E foray by suggesting he was a “racing purist”.
A former Virgin driver in Formula 1, the Brazilian has made his name in the all-electric series with the Audi Abt Schaeffler team, winning the championship back in Season 3.
Having also been heavily involved in the creation of the category, as well as being CEO of the autonomous Roborace series, Di Grassi believes the words the Austrian used were very open to interpretation.
“Dr Marko said that he is a ‘racing purist’. For me it is an argument [that is] a bit false because it depends a lot from what this means for people,” he told Autosport.
“What exactly is this thought? [Does he] defend races with horses instead of cars? If he is a real racing purist, he should defend horse races. Or races with just combustion engines, without hybrid systems as F1 is nowadays.
“Or cars with full manual gearboxes, without paddle-shift, [which is] how it is nowadays in F1 – it is an open argument.
“This is more his personal opinion of saying: ‘Look, I don’t want to compete in Formula E, I’m too old for this and want to do combustion races in F1’.”
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The Red Bull advisor went further in his criticism suggesting Formula E was merely a marketing opportunity for manufacturers an in general because of its approach of taking it to the people.
While Di Grassi didn’t comment on those points, he did reaffirm his confidence in the importance of Formula E going forward.
“F1 is still the most important category of the world of motorsport, nobody can deny this. But the future of the manufacturers is electric,” he stated.