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Even the Abu Dhabi Self-Driving Car Racing League
Nico Müller will leave the Abt Cupra team after the 2024 Formula E season finale in London next weekend and could team up with last year’s champion Jake Dennis at Andretti next season as part of a long-term future with Porsche.
The race could reveal that Muller has already informed the Abt Cupra team that he will not continue with them until season three, when he will switch to the new Lola-Yamaha powertrain.
The 32-year-old Swiss driver has been one of the revelations of the current Formula E season, picking up four points for his weaker team, reaching the double qualifying stages six times and outscoring team-mate Lucas di Grassi 10-2 so far.
This has made Muller a sought-after man and his name has been linked with a number of potential deals in recent weeks as he looks to decide his racing programme for 2025.
One of those offers is believed to have come from Porsche, while the other relates to what is believed to be a package deal with Stellantis Motorsport which would have continued its current Peugeot World Endurance Championship deal alongside an FE seat at the Maserati MSG team, with whom it was in talks earlier this summer.
The Race understands that Muller has already informed Peugeot that he will not accept the WEC offer for 2025, which means the same applies to driving the Maserati FE.
Muller first sparked rumours about his potential future with Porsche when he took part in a shocking private test for the works team in Spain, which was revealed by The Race in March. This appeared to have exacerbated bad feelings between Antonio Felix da Costa and some members of the Porsche team at a time when da Costa had not scored a point and was struggling badly.
Since then, Da Costa has gone on an epic run of four wins and has become an outside contender for the championship, scoring 126 points since the Monaco E-Prix in April compared to 66 for team-mate and title champion Pascal Wehrlein.
Porsche currently appears to be the favourite to secure Muller’s services for a future programme that could include an initial appointment at customer Andretti for 2025.
Porsche and Andretti had a similar agreement with Andre Lotterer in 2023 when he partnered Dennis, while also racing in the WEC for Porsche Team Penske.
The deal included a commercial and engineering element, with Lotterer taking his long-time engineer Fabrice Roussel with him to Andretti for the season.
Norman Nato, who will replace Lotterer, has a one-year deal with Andretti, a plan that is likely to include an option on his services for next season. Nato principal Tiago Monteiro is understood to be talking to other teams, as well as Andretti, for 2025.
The race says
Muller, who was often weak in Formula E due to Penske’s rebellious display from 2019 to 2021 and then due to Mahindra’s difficulties in the first season of the third generation in 2023, has turned into a surprise champion for the 2024 season.
He took fourth, fifth and sixth places at Misano and Portland on his own merits. These are impressive results in the context of a Mahindra car that has needed serious work since its debut in 2023.
It was supposed to be more than that. Muller was on the verge of a shock result of the season in the second Misano race when he came out of the final corner in third place, but hit the “energy wall” and lost the podium to Jaguar’s Nick Cassidy.
It is believed that around this time Muller had serious discussions with Porsche after testing his development car in Spain a few weeks earlier.
When The Race magazine got wind of the matter and published a story that highlighted Da Costa’s difficulties with some members of the team, it seemed possible that Müller would be on his way to Weissach sooner rather than later.
But this is a complicated situation due to the multiple offers Muller has received from other Formula E teams, as well as a variety of options in the World Endurance Championship, where he currently competes with Peugeot.
There has been no official acknowledgement from Porsche of its interest in Muller, with the team’s statement to The Race last week confirming that Wehrlein and da Costa are “contracted to us as Porsche drivers” and that any announcement of 2025 drivers will come “at a later stage and at this time we are not commenting on any further speculation. Given that we are in a three-way title race, our focus is fully on the London E-Prix next week.”
It was Porsche Formula E director Florian Modlinger who approached Müller in March about taking him on a test and development car. The two had worked closely together at the Abt DTM team from 2018 to 2020.
The Muller test in March was a move that was well-received by da Costa. This and other issues had caused a rift in da Costa’s relationship with Porsche. He had lost some trust and respect, and for a time threatened the third season of his contract, which was due to expire in 2025.
Surprisingly, da Costa and Muller could now drive Porsche Formula E cars next season. But Porsche’s longer-term future in the Gen IV era in 2026 and beyond looks set to be built around Wehrlein and Muller.
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