Why Michael Andretti and Andretti Autosport Are in Formula E

• Portland, Ore., will host the only United States stop on the 16-race ABB FIA Formula E tour this weekend.

• The catalyst for Andretti’s investment was business diversification.

• Team principal Roger Griffiths says he was pushing IndyCar for hybrid power systems as far back as 2012, and getting no traction.

In a recent IndyCar teleconference, Michael Andretti said his IndyCar team can glean “nothing” from his Extreme E electric off-road series.

So why has the team owner been immersed in the ABB FIA Formula E Championship, Extreme E’s city-street cousin, since its debut nine years ago?

As the 16-race series makes its lone American stop at Portland, Ore., this weekend before wrapping up with doubleheaders at Rome and London, Andretti’s decision clearly has become a sound business call. The decision to invest in Formula E is the human chemical reaction between an ambitious Andretti and a visionary engineer in Roger Griffiths. The two were on racing-industry paths that were ordained to intersect.

Griffiths, Avalanche Andretti’s team principal who also oversees the Andretti ALTAWKILAT Extreme E operation, conceded that the organization’s end game is business, rather than racing, motivated. He said for Andretti, the goal was to diversify Andretti Autosport’s portfolio and “to showcase the capabilities of the Andretti brand globally.” For himself, Griffiths said the draw was multilayered, as well. It was a matter of finding the right fit for his vision.

“It was a unique form of motorsport. And one of the reasons I moved away from IndyCar was I was getting a little jaded with it all, because I didn't think they had a vision,” Griffiths said.” I was really pushing hard for hybrid systems back in 2012, 2013. I was getting no traction on that in IndyCar. And I just thought whether we like it or not, electrification in motor racing and in road cars is coming, and we have to accept that manufacturers who go racing want to race a product that their customers can identify with. And if that product now includes some electrification aspect of it, then we are going to race it,” he said.