Frijns ousting could benefit Sims, Blomqvist

ROBIN FRIJNS LOST HIS ANDRETTI Formula E drive due to “complexities” arising from his relationship with Audi.

Frijns secured the Blancpain GT Series Sprint title last month driving for Audi customer team WRT, and has been ousted at Andretti in FE as its technical partner BMW looks to embed works drivers ahead of the factory takeover of the entry for the 2018-19 season.

Antonio Felix da Costa has been retained and tested at Valencia recently alongside BMW GT ace Alexander Sims and DTM race winner Tom Blomqvist, with those two would-be FE rookies potentially splitting the campaign.

Andretti co-team principal Roger Griffiths told Autosport that Frijns’s relationship with Audi had become an insurmountable obstacle as BMW ramped up its involvement. “There were some other complexities in the relationship that Robin has with Audi, and BMW is a big competitor,” said Griffiths. “We certainly were supportive of keeping Robin within the team but it had to be a relationship that worked for everybody.”

It means Frijns is on the FE sidelines after two seasons with Andretti in which he scored a best finish of third. He will try to test with an FE team in the next few months and force his way back into the electric single-seater series for 2018-19.

He is hopeful he will continue racing with Audi next season and said the manufacturer’s new-for-2017-18 full works FE programme is a realistic target.

Andretti’s final driver decision is complicated by the DTM not announcing its 2018 calendar yet, but one option would be to run Blomqvist in the opening few races before bringing Sims (right) in once the German category kicks off.

FE teams can change drivers twice in a season without sanction, but not in the final three events unless it is deemed force majeure. Reverting to the driver named on the season’s entry list would not be considered one of those changes.