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Lucas Di Grassi feels a teammate change hasn’t really impacted him much when it comes to team efforts or a good team dynamic. Speaking exclusively to Sportskeeda at the Rome ePrix, the Mahindra Racing driver felt both Oliver Rowland and Roberto Merhi are strong teammates.
Asked by Sportskeeda how the mid-season driver switch impacted him, Di Grassi said:
“I think that’s more a question to Fred, why he changed. Rowland is a, I have a very good relationship with Ollie, strong teammate, very fast, professional. Roberto, the same. So for me, from my side, I really tend to focus on my performance.
"So I don’t really care about my teammate that much I try to. The only thing I care about having a strong teammate is because it pushes the team forwards. Roberto is a very good teammate as well. I would say ‘why there was a change’ is more of a question to Fred.”
Refraining to comment on the reasons behind the mid-season teammate change, Lucas Di Grassi insisted the teammate switch did not impact him. He claimed he had a good bond and work relationship with Rowland and also felt Merhi came in with a lot of experience.
Despite Mahindra Racing switching their drivers mid-season, he felt both made good teammates and helped the team gather strong points. Rowland was replaced by former F1 driver Merhi prior to the Jakarta ePrix in June. The switch was a mutual agreement between the team and the British driver.
Lucas Di Grassi feels Mahindra still need improvements to compete with bigger manufacturers in Formula E
Lucas Di Grassi believes Mahindra Racing are yet to get competitive enough to challenge the factory outfit such as Porsche, Jaguar, or McLaren. The Brazilian driver felt they had a good weekend in Portland before coming to Rome, but they need to move further up the order in the constructors' championship.
Outlining his expectations, Lucas Di Grassi spoke exclusively to Sportskeeda, saying:
“Last race was a good race. It was important and we scored, I scored six points and we managed to gain one place in the standings for the team. So now we are eighth, no, we are ninth in the teams. We were 10th before. So good race, good points. We were also competitive, it is not that people crashed in front of us, we actually overtook Porsche guys.
"We did a very good race. So, I was very happy. The car is evolving, but still we need to work more and more to catch the big guys, companies like Porsche, Jaguar, and so on. They have a much bigger Motorsport structure than Mahindra, so we need to work smart. We need to work in the right way to use our, the people that we have. To get closer to them (bigger teams) on an average basis.”
Comparing the structure of Mahindra Racing to the manufacturers, Lucas Di Grassi feels that they lack the mammoth infrastructure that other automotive giants have.
The Brazilian driver felt their car was evolving. but they needed more consistency in terms of being able to compete with the teams almost every weekend.
