| René Rast | |||||
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| Driver Details | |||||
| Nationality |  German
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| P.o.B. | Minden, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany
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| D.o.B. | 26 October 1986 | ||||
| Début | 2016 Berlin ePrix
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| Teams |  Team Aguri Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler
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| Formula E Career | |||||
| Entries | 28 (22 Starts) | ||||
| Wins | 0 | ||||
| Poles | 0 | ||||
| F.L.s | 7 | ||||
| T.P.s | 147 | ||||
| Podiums | 3 | ||||
| FanBoosts | 1 | ||||
| Duel Record | |||||
| Duels | 10 | ||||
| Quarters | Semis | Finals | |||
| W | L | W | L | W | L |
| 2 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Current Season | |||||
| Team | NEOM McLaren Formula E Team
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| Number | Standings | Points | |||
| 58 | 13th | 40 | |||
René Rast (born 26 October 1986 in Minden, North Rhine-Westphalia, West Germany) is a German racing driver, who competes in the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship with the NEOM McLaren Formula E Team.[1] Well regarded as a triple DTM champion in recent season's, Rast would make his FE return in place of Daniel Abt for the second half of the 2019/20 season having previously raced at the 2016 Berlin ePrix in place of António Félix da Costa.[2][3]
Rast's cameo appearances would see him claim his maiden podium finish at the 2020 Berlin E-Prix V, having set the fastest time in group qualifying.[4][5] That earned him a full season seat with Audi for the 2020/21 season, albeit with the caveat that the German marque would pull out of FE at the end of the season.[6]
Background[]
After a fairly standard junior career in karting, which climaxed in a single season in Formula BMW, Rast claimed his first title with the 2005 ADAC Volkswagen Polo Cup.[7] A single season in the Seat Leon Supercopa Germany followed, before Rast began his long association with the various Porsche Carrera Cup series.[7] His maiden season in the German version came in 2007 with little success, although his results were good enough to earn future drives in both the German Cup and the Porsche Supercup.[7]
Porsche Power[]
2008 saw Rast's career really take off, with the German sweeping to the title in the German Cup, while also completing a near full season in the Supercup.[7] 2009 saw Rast take second in the Supercup, before winning the series outright in 2010, the season he also started in the ADAC GT Masters.[7] The following two seasons of Supercup belonged to Rast, the German making it three titles in a row in 2012, a season in which he also won the German Cup and the ADAC GT Masters.[7]
Amid his dominance of the Supercup, Rast was rewarded with drives in the 12 Hours of Sebring.[7] That developed into a drive at the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2012, a race in which the German would win his class.[7] Later that season Rast would take part in the 24 Hours of Spa, taking victory for Audi as his time with Porsche came to an end.[7]
Audi Auxiliary[]
His move to Audi as a factory driver saw Rast given the chance to campaign in the FIA GT Series and the Blancpain Sprint Series, taking maiden victories in both.[7] 2014 saw Rast make his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class, his performance good enough to get a drive in the third factory Audi R18 in 2015.[7] After his two outings for the factory effort Rast was loaned out again, taking a full World Endurance Championship drive in LMP2, alongside a few appearances in the DTM.[7] The latter would become Rast's primary series for 2017.
Formula E History[]
Rast got his single shot in Formula E with Team Aguri, who needed a driver to replace António Félix da Costa when the Portuguese racer was absent with DTM duties.[2] Having never tested an FE car before, Rast needed to learn quickly at the 2016 Berlin ePrix, and he duly qualified down in seventeenth on his debut, although he was at least quicker than teammate Ma Qing Hua.[3] The race itself was not a brilliant one for the German, with Rast not classified despite finishing, having had to stop early after picking up bodywork damage.[3]
An Abt Replacement?: 2019/20[]
Rast was linked with the second Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler seat alongside Lucas di Grassi towards the end of the 2019/20 season, after Daniel Abt was dropped from the team after an incident in the ABB Formula E Race at Home Challenge.[8] Audi were reported as having scheduled a test for the German racer in order to evaluate the Spark SRT05e, although it would be dependant on how the revised 2019/20 calendar was structured after the COVID-19 Pandemic paused the Championship.[8] Rast was later handed Abt's vacated seat after FE announced its plans to complete the 2019/20 season in Berlin, with a view to racing in the Championship full time in 2020/21.[4]
Audi Ambition: 2020/21[]
Audi would opt to keep Rast in their FE squad for the 2020/21 season as FE became a World Championship, although the German marque would subsequently announce that the season would also be their last in the series.[6][9] Regardless, Rast would head into his first full FE campaign in a optimistic frame of mind, and would open his scoring account at the opening race, finishing fourth with fastest lap at the 2021 Diriyah E-Prix I after briefly challenging race winner Nyck de Vries for victory.[10] A rather anonymous race would follow for Rast in the 2021 Diriyah E-Prix II, with the German racer qualifying at the back of the field, before receiving multiple penalties for infringements that left him down in seventeenth.[11]
Undeterred, Rast would head battle back from another lowly grid position, having spun in qualifying on his flying lap, to score solid points in the 2021 Rome E-Prix I, albeit after a late accident thinned the field.[12] Rast subsequently went on to fight in the midfield in the 2021 Rome E-Prix II, before crashing out in spectacular fashion late on, a suspension failure sending him heavily into the barriers at turn one after he clipped the barriers.[13]
McLaren's Marvel?: 2022/23[]
After Audi's withdrawal from FE at the end of 2020/21 Rast was left without a seat for 2021/22, and the German driver would eventually leave Audi's racing programme altogether during 2022.[1] Ahead of the 2022/23 season the now BMW backed Rast was approached by McLaren to join their new-for-2022/23 FE team, with Rast duly signing up to be their lead driver with Jake Hughes later signed as his teammate.[1] Rast and Hughes would share their testing duties for McLaren as the British squad built up to their first FE season as a customer team with Nissan powertrains.[1]
Full Formula E Record[]
Shown below are a series of tables outlining René Rast's career in Formula E in statistical form.
Formula E Entries[]
The list below includes all of the teams and cars, as well as overall finishing positions for René Rast during their FE career:
| René Rast's Overall Formula E Record | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Entrant | No. | Car | Pos. | Pts. |
| 2015/16 | Team Aguri[2]
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55 | Spark-Renault SRT_01E | 23rd | 0 |
| 2019/20 | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler[4]
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66 | Audi e-tron FE06 | 15th | 29 |
| 2020/21 | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler[6]
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33 | Audi e-tron FE07 | 13th | 78 |
| 2022/23 | NEOM McLaren Formula E Team[1]
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58 | Nissan e-4ORCE 04 | 13th | 40 |
Career Results[]
Below is a table showing René Rast's full Formula E record.
| FIA Formula E Championship Record | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Rounds | Pos. | Pts. | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||
| 2015/16 | 
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23rd | 0 | |||||
| NC | CAN | |||||||||||||||||
| 2019/20 | 
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15th | 29 | |||||
| 10th | 13th | Ret | 16th | 3rdG | 4th | |||||||||||||
| 2020/21 |
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13th | 78 | |
| 4th | 17th | 6th | Ret | 5th | 6th | Ret | 2nd | 10th | 10th | 20th | 5th | Ret | 9th | 9th | ||||
| 2022/23 |
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13th | 40 |
| 18th | 5th | 3rd | Ret | 4th | 9th | 17th | 13th | 17th | 15th | 15th | 14th | Ret | 13th | 14th | 12th | |||
References[]
Videos and Images:
- Malte Christians, 'Image No: A203358', audi-mediacenter.com, (Audi Communications Motorsport, 03/07/2020), https://www.audi-mediacenter.com/en/press-releases/rene-rast-drives-audi-formula-e-car-for-the-first-time-12945, (Accessed 03/07/2020)
References:
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 'McLaren signs Rene Rast for its inaugural Formula E campaign', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 23/08/2022), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2022/august/mclaren-signs-rast, (Accessed 23/08/2022)
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 'Rast replaces da Costa at Team Aguri', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 18/05/2016), http://fiaformulae.com/en/news/2016/may/rast-replaces-da-costa-at-team-aguri/, (Accessed 20/05/2016)
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 'Buemi win cuts di Grassi's lead to just one point', fiaformula.com, (FIA Formula E, 21/05/2016), http://fiaformulae.com/en/news/2016/may/buemi-win-cuts-di-grassi-s-lead-to-just-one-point/, (Accessed 21/05/2016)
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 'Double DTM champion Rene Rast joins Audi until end of the season', fiaformulae.com. (FIA Formula E, 19/06/2020), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2020/june/rast-audi, (Accessed 19/06/2020)
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedBer20R5 - ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 'Lucas di Grassi and Rene Rast return for Audi in 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship', fiaformulae.com, (ABB FIA Formula E, 27/10/2020), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2020/october/audi-driver-announcement-di-grassi-rast, (Accessed 27/10/2020)
- ↑ 7.00 7.01 7.02 7.03 7.04 7.05 7.06 7.07 7.08 7.09 7.10 7.11 'René Rast', driverdb.com, (Driver Database, 2020), https://www.driverdb.com/drivers/rene-rast/, (Accessed 19/06/2020)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 'Report: Audi driver Rene Rast before Formula E test', e-formel.de, (e-formel.de, 05/06/2020), https://www.e-formel.de/kurzmeldungen/bericht-audi-pilot-rast-bekommt-formel-e-test.html, (Accessed 06/06/2020)
- ↑ Sam Smith, 'AUDI TO LEAVE FORMULA E AFTER 2021 FOR LE MANS AND DAKAR', the-race.com, (The Race, 30/11/2020), https://the-race.com/formula-e/audi-to-leave-formula-e-at-end-of-2021-season/, (Accessed 17/01/2021)
- ↑ 'Nyck de Vries storms to maiden win in Formula E's first night race; the season-opening 2021 Diriyah E-Prix', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 26/02/2021), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2021/february/diriyah-round-1, (Accessed 26/02/2021)
- ↑ 'Jaguar Racing's Sam Bird soars to Round 2 victory at Diriyah', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 27/02/2021), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2021/february/diriyah-round-2, (Accessed 27/02/2021)
- ↑ 'Jean-Eric Vergne conquers frenetic Rome E-Prix Round 3', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 10/04/2021), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2021/april/rome-e-prix-round-3-report-jean-eric-vergne-winner, (Accessed 10/04/2021)
- ↑ 'Redemption for Stoffel Vandoorne in Rome as Mercedes driver seals Round 4 victory', fiaformulae.com, (FIA Formula E, 11/04/2021), https://www.fiaformulae.com/en/news/2021/april/rome-e-prix-round-4-report, (Accessed 11/04/2021)
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