Felipe Drugovich will be making a permanent return to single-seaters, as he is set to join Andretti for the 2025/26 Formula E campaign on a multi-year deal.
It’s a significant move for the young Brazilian, who has often found himself sitting on the sidelines in recent years despite his impressive junior racing record.
Although he was the first talent signed to the Aston Martin development programme, less than 48 hours after he secured the 2022 Formula 2 title, Drugovich hasn’t been able to sink his teeth into a full-time single-seater drive since.
As one of Aston Martin’s test and reserve drivers, a role he currently shares with Stoffel Vandoorne, Drugovich has been able to gain first-hand experience and invaluable access to the Formula 1 team across the last three years.
He’s driven the car on race weekends too, recently covering for an injured Fernando Alonso during FP1 for the 2025 Hungarian Grand Prix, in addition to several in-season Pirelli tyre tests including one in Monza earlier this month.
The 25-year-old has dabbled in endurance racing too, competing in the Le Mans 24 Hours with Cadillac Whelen over the last two years as well as five rounds of the European Le Mans Series in 2024. He even completed two Formula E rounds with Mahindra Racing in the 2024/25 season.
Felipe Drugovich, Aston Martin F1 Team
Photo by: Zak Mauger / LAT Images via Getty Images
However, it’s not been enough. When Drugovich was crowned F2 champion, he was labelled as one of motorsport’s brightest new stars but with Aston Martin committing to its driver pairing of Alonso and Lance Stroll, any chance of a promotion to the pinnacle proved stagnant.
“Since the beginning of the year, I was hungry to get back to racing and not just be waiting on the sidelines,” said Drugovich.
“It was something that I really wanted to do and get back behind the wheel. I have missed it since the day after I finished my last race in F2 but I needed it even for my mental health. So get it done, and for a team of this size and this name, is such a cool thing to do. I’m really happy to be able to race not just for me, but with a team like Andretti.
“Most of the races that I’ve done were endurance races and you’re sharing a lot of stuff. Not that I don’t like that, but I was missing the feeling of having my own little team and my own car, my own engineer and my own mechanics. It’s what I was used to since the beginning of my career, and I was really missing that feeling, but I was still not completely sure about if I would like the challenge or not.”
But he certainly left an admirable impression after his Formula E cameos, having previously been rapid in rookie sessions, and scored points in his second race after a spectacular climb up the grid from 19th to seventh around the Tempelhof airport venue.
Understandably, offers for a full-time seat followed, but for Drugovich a previous conversation with Andretti had influence over his decision.
“I first got approached back in 2023 by the team when they were at the top with Jake Dennis [who had just won the drivers’ title], so I have had this really good picture about the team since then,” he said. “It was cool to be approached again, and I think that’s the main reason I chose them because I remember this first approach and back when they were at the top.
Felipe Drugovich, Mahindra Racing
Photo by: Andrew Ferraro / LAT Images via Getty Images
“They’re all so fast and the team is very strong in most of the races. Now that I have got to know most of the team already, it’s something that has really confirmed in my mind how capable the team is. Hopefully, sooner than later, we will be fighting for wins and championships.”
Formula E will embark on a record-breaking calendar over the 2025/26 season, with 18 races starting with a home race for Drugovich in Sao Paulo on 6 December.
“It’s so cool to race in front of my home crowd,” he added, “as it’s something that I’ve been looking to do forever and especially in a series of this size and being a world championship. I’ve seen clips from last year’s race and the grandstands were packed, so hopefully this year there’ll be even more!”
There are some clashes between Formula E and Formula 1 though, including the season opener which runs parallel to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. There is also a conflict of schedules across the Berlin, Shanghai and Tokyo E-Prix rounds, which are the same weekend as the Miami, British and Hungarian grands prix in 2026.
When asked how or if this new Formula E seat will impact his test and reserve role with Aston Martin, Drugovich remained tight-lipped: “I don’t know yet to be fair. The main focus was to get this done with Andretti. I will need to see what is going to be beneficial or not for me.”
As the Formula E driver market continues to be confirmed, it could well be that Stoffel Vandoorne finds himself out of a seat in the all-electric championship anyway as Citroen – which replaces Stellantis sister-brand Maserati – confirmed both Nick Cassidy and Jean-Eric Vergne as its drivers last week.
Vandoorne currently shares test and reserve duties with Drugovich at Aston Martin, so it seems unlikely that the two of them will be competing in the series over the same weekends. Aston Martin’s young driver Jak Crawford, who was also the reserve and development driver for Andretti in Formula E last season, also looks to be heading to Cadillac’s F1 team as a potential reserve driver after the signing of Colton Herta as test driver earlier this month.
