Sweeping personnel changes shake up Team Aguri
The Aguri Formula E squad has made a raft of changes to its team ahead of the third round of the all-electric championship at Punta del Este.
Antonio Felix da Costa, Team Aguri
Jun Qian
The team, which had gone through a considerable shake-up pre-season with regard to its corporate structure, has again made several surprising switches to its engineering staff.
So far in season two, Team Aguri has scored two top-10 finishes with an eighth place for Nathanael Berthon in Beijing, and a sixth for Antonio Felix da Costa in Putrajaya.
Motorsport.com can reveal that the most significant change sees experienced technical director Gerry Hughes replaced by former Peugeot LMP and Sebastien Loeb Racing engineer Leo Thomas, who has some Formula E experience from a stint with the Venturi team last season.
Hughes, who is also a shareholder in the team, worked closely on Felix da Costa's car in season one and took up the role of Technical Director from Peter McCool in September. McCool himself had been a shareholder, but left to concentrate on building his 3D machining company.
Several other engineers who worked via the team’s Bicester based office have also left.
A Team Aguri spokesman told Motorsport.com: “Team Aguri has recently made changes to its senior management and is continuing to build a strong team for season two and its future in Formula E.
"This has involved internal changes that will ensure the team is taking full advantage of the experience, knowledge and skills available to them, to deliver and continue to build a winning team on and off the track.”
Mark Preston, one of the team's original founders, is understood to be unaffected by the changes and is expected to continue in his role as team principal.
Aguri Suzuki, like Preston, also remains a shareholder in the operation, but the former Japanese F1 driver has yet to attend a race this year and is not scheduled to be travelling to Uruguay this weekend.
Among Team Aguri’s new investors, who Motorsport.com understands have at least a 50 percent share in the team, is sometime racer Marc Faggionato. The Monegasque real estate expert also co-owns the RS Simulation company alongside fellow Aguri stakeholder Simon Gineys.
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