Mercedes has announced plans to quit touring car racing – and instead will field a team for Formula E electric-car street racing in 2019.
This follows an earlier announcement that it will no longer take part in the hugely popular Le Mans 24-Hour sports car race or similar endurance championships in order to shift its attention to Formula E.
Mercedes joins other major car makers BMW, Citroën, Jaguar, Mahindra and Renault in committing to Formula E.
Formula E cars are extremely powerful and fast, but the near-silence of their engines has seen public support rather cool, compared with the millions who flock to noisy Formula One racing.
Ah, they don’t know what they’re missing, says Toto Wolff, executive director of Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport. “Formula E is like an exciting start-up venture: It offers a brand new format, combining racing with a strong event character, in order to promote current and future technologies,” he says
