Nico Müller will drive alongside Jake Dennis in the Andretti Formula E team next season as part of a deal that was activated after an agreement for Müller to become a Porsche factory driver.
As The Race first reported, the former Dragon and Abt Cupra driver has been in talks with Porsche since early 2024 over a future role with the manufacturer. It was agreed in early summer and is believed to have originally been about replacing António Felix da Costa for the 2024-25 season.
But when da Costa racked up a string of results, including four wins in five races in May and June, the prospect of his three-year contract being terminated receded. That meant Porsche had to come up with a backup plan for Müller, who drove a Gen III car for its Test and Development division in March.
With Andretti’s Porsche-powered driver Norman Nato contributing 47 of Andretti’s 169 points in a 2024 season that the team admits has been “a season of mixed results”, Porsche and Andretti are once again collaborating on a driver transition as they did in 2023 when Andretti ran Andre Lotterer.
Muller had received a number of offers to race in Formula E, including a new contract with Abt Cupra and a partnership with the Maserati MSG team. The second possibility was to stay with the Peugeot factory team in the World Endurance Championship.
But in early July, Abt confirmed that Müller would leave the team at the end of the 2024 season. At the same time, Müller informed Maserati – which has now signed Jake Hughes and Stoffel Vandoorne – of his intention not to accept their offer as his plans for Porsche became more solid.
Andretti has now announced that Muller will join Dennis for the upcoming 2024-25 season and said he will drive alongside the 2023 champion as part of Porsche’s test later this month in preparation for the Gen3 Evo era.
Muller said it was an “honour” to partner Dennis and added that his goal with Andretti was to achieve “my first win in Formula E”.
CEO Michael Andretti said the team was “confident that adding a driver of Nico’s calibre will help us deliver results” in line with its “high expectations” for the 2024-25 season.
“He has proven his knowledge of electric racing and has shown that he can achieve strong results across a wide range of Formula E tracks,” added Andretti Team Principal Roger Griffiths.
An inevitable but complicated deal.
The Müller/Porsche deal was extremely complex, and its implementation became more difficult as talks between Da Costa’s boss, Tiago Monteiro, and Porsche’s top management intensified in May.
At one point, da Costa appeared ready to leave Porsche to pursue a joint WEC and Formula E programme next season, something he has been unable to do at Porsche since it decided to focus on its Formula E activities in the fall of 2023.
The reason Müller has joined Porsche is simple. He has a long-standing relationship with programme director Florian Modlinger after the pair enjoyed success together in numerous DTM campaigns over the past decade at Audi.
At Modlinger’s suggestion, Müller tested for the team in March. From that point on, the initial test turned into discussions about joining Porsche for the 2024-25 season.
At that point, Porsche thought they might have to cover the da Costa deal, but then they had to rethink when da Costa started winning, and instead started forming a long-term plan for Muller, and that’s where Andretti came in.
The Porsche-Andretti alliance will run until the end of the Gen3 era in the summer of 2026, with an extension of the deal confirmed earlier this year after Porsche itself announced its intention to pursue the second phase of Gen3 after the 2023 Rome E-Prix.
From Muller’s perspective, the long-term deal with Porsche, which is likely to last for at least three years, could also open up possibilities in the World Endurance Championship, where Porsche is known to be adapting its team for 2025 and beyond.
As an Andretti driver, Muller could feasibly fulfil one aspect of the FE/WEC dual programme, just as Lotterer did in 2023.
Muller, who is currently part of Peugeot’s World Endurance Championship squad, is expected to get some sporting rides with Porsche next season and could be placed in the hypercar customer team, Proton Competition, before representing Porsche’s factory team in Formula E as Da Costa’s replacement in 2026.
But Muller certainly seems to be targeting Formula E in the future, something that seemed out of reach during his unsuccessful run with Dragon Racing in 2019-20 and with Abt Cobra, which has had problems with its Mahindra car over the past few years.
Speaking to The Race at the Portland E-Prix in June, Muller said he felt like he had “a big point to prove here.” [in Formula E]”He has been around for a long time and has invested a lot of my energy and time into this project.”
“I feel like this is the format and championship that suits me, and I’m enjoying being here and driving these cars to the fullest,” he added.
“I want to prove that I can win races and compete strongly in this championship because I am convinced that I can do so.”
At Andretti next season, everyone should be a winner.
The team, because it will have a free and fast driver capable of collecting winning points. Porsche, because it will put a talent in a subordinate position. And of course Muller himself, because he will have one of the fastest cars on the grid and the limited pressure that comes with it.
It could make for a unique season as Dennis, now paired with a fifth team-mate in five campaigns, finally gets a proper test from the other side of the garage after his in-team victories over Nato and Maximilian Günther (2020-21) and demolition of Oliver Askew (2022) and Lotterer (2023).
