Lucas di Grassi will retire from professional racing at the end of the 2025-26 Formula E season, drawing the curtain on a 12-year career arc that has been inseparable from the all-electric series since its inception in 2014. The Brazilian, who won the championship in 2016-17 and stands as Formula E's most successful driver across its 14 seasons, will make his final start at the season-closing London E-Prix on August 15-16.
"After a lifetime dedicated to racing, 2026 will mark my final season as a professional racing driver," di Grassi confirmed in a statement released by Formula E.
"Motorsport has been my life for as long as I can remember, giving me discipline and grit. Every great race has a final lap, and I want mine to be driven with the same intensity."
The Brazilian's place in Formula E's foundational story is singular. He was the first driver to commit when the series was being built in 2014, won the inaugural Beijing E-Prix that opening season, and has remained on the grid through every subsequent generation of car. Thirteen race wins later, the most of any driver across the championship's history, di Grassi will end the journey where Formula E ends its calendars: in a parc ferme at London's ExCeL.
Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds paid tribute to di Grassi as a constant of the series.
"Lucas has been synonymous with Formula E since the very beginning," Dodds said. "His influence on this sport will have a permanent impact."
The retirement closes a career that stretched far beyond Formula E's electric paddock. Di Grassi spent the 2010 Formula 1 season with Virgin Racing, debuted in the World Endurance Championship with Audi and finished runner-up in the 2016 WEC standings, and stood on the Le Mans 24 Hours podium three times. The Audi years carried him through the LMP1 era and into Formula E as the manufacturer's lead driver, where the partnership delivered his world title in 2016-17.
The 2025-26 season has not been a swansong of dominance. Di Grassi has struggled to consistently match the front of the field this year, but the calendar runs through Berlin, Shanghai and London with multiple chances for podium farewells. The London finale carries particular weight: the ExCeL venue is the only Formula E circuit that runs partially indoors, a peculiarity di Grassi himself has championed as proof of the series' willingness to push boundaries.
The retirement also opens a seat for 2026-27 at di Grassi's current team, a question that the silly-season market will start chewing over the moment he confirms he is stepping out for good.
For drivers who came through the series after 2014, di Grassi has been the benchmark of professionalism off the circuit and the most reliably aggressive racer on it. His engineering background, including a degree from the University of Sao Paulo, has often shaped the conversation around energy management strategy, regenerative braking limits and tyre allocation. Several of those positions became Formula E policy.
The wider motorsport calendar moves on. Berlin's E-Prix in May offers di Grassi a venue where he won twice in the early seasons and where his Audi years are most clearly recorded. London delivers the closure. After that, di Grassi is expected to remain involved with motorsport in mentorship and engineering capacities, though he has signalled in recent interviews that he intends to pursue interests away from the cockpit, including sustainability advocacy and venture capital backing of motorsport technology.
The Brazilian's signoff frames his career in characteristic terms. Every great race has a final lap. His lap, by the time it falls in August, will close out a career that more than any other defines what Formula E has been across its first dozen years.
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*Originally published on [Motorsports Global](https://motorsports.global/article/lucas-di-grassi-formula-e-retirement-2026-london-final-season). Visit for full coverage.*