Faraday Future Is Out Of Formula E: Report
Cash-strapped automotive startup Faraday Future has ended its partnership with the Dragon Racing Formula E team, according to Autosport. Dragon Racing had already dropped Faraday Future from its name on the 2017-18 season entry list, but now it's reported that Faraday Future won't be involved with them at all.
A Faraday Future representative told Jalopnik back in September that the partnership was still on, but clues kept hinting that it was not. Porsche factory driver Neel Jani, for example, told us that there would be no conflict in driving for Dragon Racing this season as they weren't a manufacturer when we asked about his switch to Formula E in Austin. Lastly, the new Dragon Racing cars and uniforms appear to lack any mention of Faraday Future.
Now Autosport understands that the technical partnership between Faraday Future and Dragon Racing is over.
It's not hard to see why this partnership would end, with many reports of financial mismanagement and high staff turnover at Faraday Future as well as the partnership's poor record. Dragon finished second and fourth in the Formula E championship in its first two years without Faraday Future. It their lone season together, Faraday Future Dragon Racing only managed to finish eighth, without ever making it onto the podium.
Insiders familiar with the team painted a turbulent picture of life inside the team, claiming that the two sides never integrated all that well with each other. Faraday Future's involvement in Formula E was also the brainchild of ex-Ferrari F1 head Marco Mattiacci, who briefly served as Faraday Future's CEO but has already left. With no higher-up cheerleader left within the company, it's an easy thing to axe.
When a company is struggling to simply start a factory, that's probably not the time to stay in motorsports—especially when Formula E is about to open more items for development and require more of an investment from its teams to develop their cars for each season.
Dragon Racing is now seeking a new manufacturer partnership for upcoming seasons, reports Autosport, although no details were given as to who that might be.
Jalopnik has reached out to both Faraday Future and Dragon Racing for comment on this report, and will update this article if we receive a response.