Two years on from his first test in a Formula E car, Aston Martin Formula 1 reserve driver Felipe Drugovich will race one at Berlin Tempelhof next weekend, replacing regular driver Nyck de Vries.
De Vries is the second victim of the calendar clash between Formula E and the World Endurance Championship's 6 Hours of Sao Paulo at Interlagos, where - unlike Toyota stablemate Sebastien Buemi, who is prioritising Formula E - De Vries will race alongside regular team-mates Kamui Kobayashi and Mike Conway.
For Drugovich, who has come close to making his F1 debut on a number of occasions via sickness and injury for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll respectively, Berlin will be another taster of a possible future career direction.
The 2022 Formula 2 champion has not raced a single seater since end of that title-winning F2 season in Abu Dhabi that year. Since then, he has competed at the Daytona and Le Mans 24 Hours for the Action Express Cadillac team and also raced in the European Le Mans Series.
But Formula E now calls. And with Mahindra’s form having picked up significantly this season after a troubled first two seasons of the Gen3 era, Drugovich has the opportunity to advertise himself for the upcoming Gen4 era, when the car's performance will be much more akin to F2, where he so thrived.
Why now is right time
Drugovich’s call up to replace De Vries came partly through his testing appearances with Maserati MSG at Berlin, Rome and Berlin again in 2023. At those tests he struck up a close technical relationship with then engineer Jérémy Colançon.
When the French engineer moved across to Mahindra in the autumn of 2023, Drugovich was much in Colançon’s thoughts after his previous impressive tests.
When De Vries informed his team that he would be contractually obliged to pick WEC instead of Formula E for the Interlagos/Berlin clash, Colançon called Drugovich and invited him to a test in May.
That took place at Guadix in Spain and it became apparent very quickly that Drugovich would be the favoured choice ahead of Mahindra's 2024 sub Jordan King or its F2-committed reserve Kush Maini, who wanted to concentrate on that programme with the DAMS squad.
“It's been two years coming since the [first Maserati MSG] test,” Drugovich told The Race.
“Every time I jumped in the car, I felt quite nice. I enjoyed the championship. I enjoyed the car as well and I enjoyed the track [Tempelhof] even though, if it's not the same every year, it changes a little bit, I still enjoy it. I think it was the right time for me.”
At 25, Drugovich is aware that he should be racing a full-time and permanent campaign. That hasn’t happened in F1 and though in theory Aston Martin is a team that would have race seat vacancies before long (with Alonso surely nearing the end of his career soon and the ongoing questions over whether Stroll is the team's best option in competitiveness terms), Drugovich doesn't feel like he'd be at the front of that queue.
But trying to keep F1 options open has so far dissuaded him from making any major commitments elsewhere.
“I've had my 'almost opportunities' many times in Formula 1 in these two to almost three years, and it's been close so many times and that's the reason why I never really signed anything,” said Drugovich.
“I was just trying to get any opportunity I wanted to get in Formula 1.
“For next year, whatever happens, whatever category I will be in, I want to be racing fully and that's something I need at the moment.
"Technically, mentally, I think I need to get back racing and have a routine, rather than just be waiting for calls.”
What can he do in Berlin?
In one sense Drugovich’s appearance in Berlin comes with zero pressure. While Mahindra sits fifth in the teams' standings and is only 24 points off DS Penske in third, anything above its current position will be considered a bonus this year given how much of an improvement it already is over recent painful seasons.
Chances of a seat at Mahindra appear slim as both Edoardo Mortara and De Vries have scored podiums this season and have been consistently mentioned by Mahindra team principal Frederic Bertrand as being part of a three-season plan which will go up to and including the 2025-26 season.
In a wider sense Drugovich doesn’t really have to prove himself to other teams either. This is because they are aware third-hand that he has excelled in his Formula E tests so far and that he comes with a pedigree, albeit one that is fading in the short-termist memory space of international motorsport.
Practically speaking, gathering some points, any points in Berlin will be deemed a success for Drugovich. The races will have more than an element of fraught pack-racing at the wide-open Tempelhof airfield and that takes some adjusting to.
But last season, Envision stand-ins Joel Eriksson and Paul Aron both showed points scoring credentials, with the former grabbing a couple for ninth place. Then there is Taylor Barnard, who last May at Berlin took a 10th and an eighth in just his second Formula E race weekend as a McLaren stand-in. If Drugovich can match that or even better it, Mahindra will be happy.
“It's going to be difficult, because everyone is up to speed, everyone knows the car, and everyone is quite experienced in this car and in this category already,” pondered Drugovich.
“I'm not going to put any goals on it, or anything like that. I just need to try to learn as much as I can and enjoy at the end of the day, but at the same time, if there is a right time to join Mahindra, I think the last few races were really good and hopefully we can carry on this momentum to Berlin.”
Where could Drugovich fit on the Formula E grid?
With Nick Cassidy signing a long-term deal with Stellantis and Theo Pourchaire in the wings as a test driver, there is no room for Drugovich at either of the two teams (currently DS Penske and Maserati MSG) running under its banner.
Much more plausible is that teams such as Envision, Andretti and Cupra Kiro would look seriously at him for the Gen4 era, the season after next.
For Drugovich the increase in power for Gen4 is a clear attraction even before the new-look cars have been seen driven publicly.
“If I have to be completely honest, one of the reasons why drivers maybe overlook Formula E a little bit is actually because of the performance of the cars,” he said.
“I think any driver will always get more pleasure driving a faster car and I think this jump will actually make it a lot more interesting for the drivers and hopefully for the fans as well.
“Formula E is already quite interesting to watch the races as we have big fights throughout every race, so that's a good thing for the fans, and hopefully they don't lose that within the new Gen 4, but at the same time, I think for the drivers it would be a lot more pleasant.”
The logical bet for Drugovich in Formula E would be replacing one of Mortara or De Vries at Mahindra for Gen4. By that time Mortara will be 40 years old and another long-term deal might be out of reach.
Via the connection with Colançon and should Berlin prove that he can make an impact competitively, Drugovich feels like a driver most likely to be a big part of a new era of Formula E in the 2026-27 season.
