The team is ready! Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler is entering the new Formula E season with Lucas di Grassi and René Rast ready for racing action.

For the first time, the season will be held as an official FIA World Championship.

Head of Audi Motorsport Dieter Gass, said: "With his impressive performances in Berlin, René proved that he feels comfortable in Formula E and at the same time is also fast and successful. He has absolutely earned his place in our Formula E team.

"At the finale in Berlin in August, Rast scored a point in the first of six races and made it onto the podium a few days later. As a rookie in the final races, he scored a total of 29 points and finished 15th in the drivers’ championship, which was ahead of many drivers who had contested the entire season."

Rast added: "The races in Berlin have definitely whetted my appetite for more, so I’m now looking forward to my first full season in Formula E. “Starting in this world championship for Audi is the next exciting chapter in my career and I am really looking forward to it.”

Rast has been a member of the Audi driver family since 2009. In addition to victories in the 24-hour races at Daytona, Spa and the Nürburgring, he has won the ADAC GT Masters title and has twice been crowned as the DTM champion. Rast is the leader of the standings ahead of the last two races of the current DTM season at Hockenheim. 

Meanwhile, di Grassi is starting his seventh Formula E season in the Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler team. After 69 races, he leads the all-time list of best drivers with 32 podiums and 796 points. Among his ten victories is also the triumph at the first Formula E race in history, which was held in Beijing in September 2014. He said: “I have experienced everything in these six years: great successes, defeats, insane emotions. And the best is yet to come, because the start-up from back then is now turning into an FIA World Championship." di Grassi recently ended his first season without finishing in the top three of the driver’s championship standings. He added: “Together with Audi and René, I will give everything in 2021 to have a say in the fight for the world championship title.”

The start of the seventh Formula E season is scheduled for mid-January 2021 in Santiago (Chile), the German home race in Berlin is scheduled for June 19. A total of 12 events will be on the world championship calendar for Lucas di Grassi, René Rast and the Audi e-tron FE07.