Venturi’s inspiring story starts in 1984 with engineers Gerard Godfroy and Claude Poirot who presented an ambitious GT (Gran Turismo) car at the Paris Motor Show. Until 1995, the constructor enjoyed a sustained success and produced cars that took part in Le Mans 24 Hours and even achieved a sixth place at the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix in 1992. However, the collapse of the market and the impossibility of producing cars at an industrial scale made it face huge financial difficulties and eventually bankruptcy. Nevertheless, the potential of the brand strongly attracted Mr. Gildo Pastor, a Monegasque entrepreneur with a vision, who admired the work undertaken by Venturi’s founders. He bought the firm in 2000, moved its headquarters to the Principality and gave it a turning point by choosing to focus on electric engines only. Fétish, the first electric model created, represented the very first sports car powered by next generation lithium-ion batteries.
Fétish was introduced by Venturi in 2008
Under Gildo Pastor’s leadership, the willingness for progress and his ambitions for Venturi made its way to the Formula E championship, a fully-electric Formula race. Venturi has been present on the grid since the inaugural race in 2014. ROKiT-Venturi was the championship’s official constructor between 2014 and 2019 and, noteworthily, its technology was used by American rivals Dragon Racing and by German team HWA, backed by Mercedes-Benz. Venturi took two podium occasions including a third place during the 2018/2019 season in Monaco, and won its first race in Hong Kong 2019 E-Prix. Its current driver line-up include Edoardo Mortara, who has 1 win and 3 podium finishes, and rookie Norman Nato.
The principal drivers of ROKit-Venturi team: Felipe Massa (retired from the team since 2020) and Edoardo Mortara
Off the Grand Prix track, Venturi is first and foremost the most advanced and visionary constructor in development of high-performance electric vehicles. In the frame of its Global Challenges which aim at promoting electricity as a sustainable, efficient and reliable energy, Venturi developed three extraordinary vehicles: the Venturi Buckeye Bullet (which, with 549 km/h, detains the world speed record for an electric vehicle), Antarctica (an electric vehicle for Polar exploration able to operate in temperatures below 50°C), and Voxan Wattman (set to become the world’s fastest electric motorcycle).
World firsts, world records, expeditions in hostile terrains such as salt lakes or polar landscapes, innovative new vehicles developed in every category… Since 2000, Venturi has continued to demonstrate the capabilities of electric vehicles, which now represent the genuine solution to clean mobility. By doing so, it has been contributing to Monaco’s leadership in this promising field and to its commitment for progress and modern technology. The consecration for Venturi would be to win in Monaco’s E-Prix: there is no doubt that it can!
Find out more about Venturi here and follow the latest news from ROKit-Venturi here.