Team Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler crowned 2018 Formula E champions

Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler sealed a superb double-double podium finish to overturn a 33-point deficit and claim a maiden Formula E team championship crown.

Heading into the final round of the season in New York, last year’s Formula E drivers’ champion, Lucas di Grassi, and team-mate, Daniel Abt, produced a phenomenal comeback – taking 78 from a maximum of 94 points available – to overhaul the Techeetah team.

 

Following a triumphant one-two on Saturday, reducing the gap to just five points, Sunday’s finale proved the ultimate showdown:

 

After starting fourth and fifth respectively, directly behind their championship rivals, both drivers enjoyed excellent races before becoming embroiled in a fight for the lead during the final few laps.

 

A frantic climax saw track positions and championship standings change lap-by-lap, but eventually, after Techeetah’s Andre Lotterer received a 10-second stop-go penalty for jumping the start, the two Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler cars’ second double podium of the weekend ensured the team could celebrate a historic first team title after four seasons of racing.

 

On the unexpected triumph, Schaeffler Chief Technology Officer, Professor Peter Gutzmer, said: “This is incredible! We arrived in New York in a very difficult position, but we still managed to turn things around and we are now team champions – we could not be happier!

 

“We have challenged every season (a third and a brace of second-place finishes), so to be able to put this trophy in our cabinet is very special. We’ll put this generation of Formula E car into our museum and look back on some extremely successful years.”

 

A new era of Formula E will get underway in mid-December. Together with Audi as an official technology partner, Schaeffler has enjoyed an illustrious period in Formula E and will hope the new Audi e-tron FE05 can deliver even greater success.

 

Managing Partner and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Schaeffler AG, Georg F. W. Schaeffler, was amongst the 300 guests who gathered on a New York rooftop to see a prototype of the new car being unveiled.