Edorado Mortara has been chosen by Venturi to drive alongside new arrival Felipe Massa next season.
Having already announced Massa’s arrival earlier in the year, the team were left with the choice of either retaining one of their current drivers or looking elsewhere.
New team boss Susie Wolff chose to go with Mortara over Maro Engel, who will now be looking for a new drive having previously dropped his DTM commitments to concentrate on Formula E.
Although Engel outscored Mortara last season, Mortara impressed the team by coming close to winning in only his second race in the series, eventually having to settle for second.
Speaking about his new contract Mortara thanked the team for the support they had shown him so far, and spoke of his excitement at taking on a driver of Massa’s calibre.
“I’m very happy to represent Venturi Formula E team again in the ABB FIA Formula E championship,” Mortara commented.
“As part of the team last season, I felt a strong will to succeed and I enjoyed the innate potential within Venturi.
“Moreover on a personal level, I received phenomenal support from the team – you can’t underestimate the importance of this for a driver, alongside huge support and goodwill from our fans which I’m very grateful for.
“I’m also very proud to compete alongside Felipe Massa, one of the most experienced and fastest drivers in the world.”
Susie Wolff said that the decision to retain Mortara had been taken after he too chose to drop his DTM commitments to concentrate on the all-electric series.
However she said that the deal hadn’t been an easy one to secure as Mortara had other competing offers that he had to weigh up.
Wolff told Motorsport.com, “It was always difficult because Formula E wasn’t his main focus before – he was in and out of the car and obvious fully focussed on DTM.
“So now it’s going to be his primary focus and we’re very happy to have him on-board again.
“It wasn’t easy to get him – he had quite a few other options – so it worked out great in the end.
“Not being fully focused on Formula E and being in and out of the car wasn’t the easiest situation to be in.
“So I have absolutely no doubt in his talent and his abilities and look forward to him focusing fully on Formula E and getting some consistency.”
