Double FIA World Touring Car Champion Jose Maria Lopez is making the switch from touring cars to all-electric single-seaters as he joins the DS Virgin Racing team in FIA Formula E for it's third season in 2016/2017. He becomes the latest in a long list of FIA world champions to try his hand in this most modern of racing series. Lopez will take the seat vacated by Jean-Eric Vergne, who moves to Techeetah squad.

The Argentinians' career record in top-level touring car racing is undoubtedly impressive – from 63 starts, his WTCC statistics currently read 27 wins, 18 pole positions, 24 fastest laps and 266 laps led. He also holds the record for most victories in one season having won 10 times in both 2014 and 2015.

‘Pechito‘ Lopez now takes on a new challenge in Formula E, although he also has experience racing single-seaters having had a successful career in Formula Renault Italian Championship and Formula Eurocup FR V6. 

Lopez said: “This is a really exciting move for me and I’m looking forward to the challenge of Formula E with DS Virgin Racing. I have already had some experience working with the DS Performance team on the season three car, so I am confident that we can achieve great things together next season. As a championship, Formula E is going from strength to strength and I’m particularly looking forward to going back to Buenos Aires where the team had such great success last season.”

Lopez will partner Sam Bird, who will enter his third season with the team having finished a strong fourth in the 2015/16 Formula E Drivers’ Championship. The British driver has won three Formula E races with the team and also picked up the FIA Formula E Pole Position trophy at the end of season award ceremony.

He said: “This season has been another positive step forward and I really believe that DS Virgin Racing is going places. We showed consistent pace in the second half of the season and if we can convert that into more race wins, then we should have a car that is capable of challenging for the championship next season. I feel at home with the team and really can’t wait to see what next season has in store.”

François Ribeiro, head of WTCC Promoter Eurosport Events, said: “Pechito was a prince of touring cars in Argentina when he came to the WTCC and he will leave at the end of 2016 as the king of World Touring Cars.

“It has been an honour to have had a driver of Pechito’s calibre competing in the championship. Since joining the WTCC, he’s raised its level, and forced established stars and teams to significantly raise their game. He became the first non-European FIA world champion since Ayrton Senna, and has probably opened the way for the next generation of Argentinean touring car drivers to join the world stage.

“We respect his aspirations to achieve success in a variety of motorsport disciplines. It’s always a great story to see a top driver switching categories at his peak. Clashes of international calendars and marketing obligations don’t make it easy nowadays. Pechito’s background is mainly in single-seaters and we have no doubt he will be at the top of Formula E with DS Virgin.”

Eric Boullier, one of Lopez’s former team bosses and now Racing Director of the McLaren Formula One team, said: “I had Jose Maria Lopez in my hands between 2003 and 2005 when he was racing at DAMS in Formula Renault 3.5 and GP2. He was already very skilled and totally focused by that time. He made a good move to join WTCC and gave his international career a second chance. It’s no surprise to me he became a multiple FIA world champion, and now he has the aspiration to win in other racing categories.”

Fittingly for Lopez, WTCC 2016 resumes in Argentina from 5-7 August. The season will then visit Japan, China, Thailand and Qatar where it concludes on 25 November.