There are strong rumours coming from Detroit that the Ford Motor Company is going to follow the industry stampede into Formula E, with a factory team. Ford was committed to stay in the FIA World Endurance Championship until the end of 2019 but with the 2018-2019 "Super Season" having been introduced, the programme will come to end after Le Mans in June 2019 - unless Ford decides to continue. The obvious thing would be for the Ford programme would replace the current GT programme which is run by Ford Chip Ganassi Racing from its premises in Greatworth Park, near Banbury, in England.
The problem is that securing an entry may be a problem. There are currently 10 teams and a capacity for two more but Porsche and Mercedes has options to take the 11th and 12th entries, while means that Ford would need to acquire an existing operation if it wants to enter. The current teams are owned by Audi, Jaguar, Mahindra, China's Nio, Renault (soon to switch to Nissan branding) and DS, while BMW is working with the Andretti team.
This means that there are only three options: Dragon Racing, Virgin Racing and Venturi. Virgin is currently allied to DS, but will lose the deal at the end of the year to Techeetah, which has been acquired by the PSA Peugeot Citroen-owned DS. Dragon Racing, owned by Americans Jay Penske, Daniel Loeb and Chad Hurley, did have a deal with Faraday Future but there was no money for that to go ahead and so the team is looking for a backer, while Venturi is currently working with Mercedes. The team is owned by Monaco real estate magnate Gildo Pallanca Pastor and actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
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