Former Verizon IndyCar Series driver Mike Conway is relishing the opportunity to make his Formula E debut in Buenos Aires, Argentina in two weeks’ time.
On Friday, it was announced that ex-Formula 1 and CART champion Jacques Villeneuve had parted company with the Venturi team over a disagreement regarding its future direction.
Venturi moved swiftly to announce that Conway would be replacing Villeneuve for the upcoming Buenos Aires ePrix, racing alongside Stephane Sarrazin.
Conway had previously been due to race for Dragon Racing in the first season of Formula E, but opted to leave the series after pre-season testing to focus on his sportscar commitments with Toyota in the FIA World Endurance Championship.
The Briton was on hand to co-commentate on the Monaco ePrix last May, but will now get the chance to race himself after being announced as Villeneuve’s replacement.
“Venturi is a top team in Formula E so it’s great to be able to join,” Conway said. “The series is innovative and quite unique.
“It is quickly growing momentum and it’s attractive to a lot of manufacturers to showcase their technologies, so it’s exciting to be a part of the series.”
Conway intimated to MotorSportsTalk back in August that he was keen to balance his Toyota racing duties with another championship, saying that a return to IndyCar would be of interest.
“It has been good just to focus on one, but I still do love just jumping in anything,” Conway said. “Driving anything is good for me.
“I love the IndyCar series and the street tracks and stuff like that. If I could, yeah I’d love to, but the schedules just did not work out at all this year. It was very difficult. I don’t even know about next year really yet. So yeah, focus on this right now.”
Formula E has proven to be the perfect series to complement the WEC, with Lucas di Grassi, Daniel Abt, Loic Duval, Sebastien Buemi, Nicolas Prost, Sam Bird and Stephane Sarrazin all balancing duties between the two championships.