NIO drops Filippi from Formula E season five line-up

The NIO Formula E squad has parted ways with Luca Filippi ahead of the start of the 2018/19 campaign.

Filippi joined NIO to make his debut in the all-electric season during season four and finished 21st in the drivers’ standings, scoring just a single point at the Hong Kong opener.

He failed to match the performances of teammate Oliver Turvey, who finished 10th in the championship having racked up a total of 46 points as the the British outfit ended up eighth in the teams’ standings.

The Italian was replaced by Ma Qing Hua in Paris but returned for the final four races of the 2017/18 campaign, taking a best result of 15th place in New York.

NIO said further announcements regarding its 2018/19 driver line-up would follow in “due course”.

“Firstly I would like to take this opportunity to thank Luca for his commitment to the role of race driver with the NIO Formula E Team, something that he undertook with immense dedication and pride, in what proved to be the most competitive season in the championship’s history,” said NIO team principal Gerry Hughes.

“Whilst it was a challenging inaugural season for Luca, he remained focused and energised and this has certainly helped the team with the initial development of the NIO 004 car over the summer months, whilst Oliver has continued to recover from his hand injury sustained in the penultimate race of Season 4 in NYC.

“However, with Season 5 firmly in our sights and having bold ambitions as NIO’s racing operation, we have decided to make changes to our race driver line-up and as a result we have to say goodbye and good luck to Luca.”

Season five – which will see the highly-anticipated introduction of the more powerful ‘Gen2’ car – begins in Saudi Arabia on December 15.