Formula E switch like 'a new girlfriend', says HWA team principal Ulrich Fritz

After Mercedes signed off an 18-year stint with the current iteration of the DTM with this year's drivers' and teams' titles, HWA will make its FE debut at this weekend's Ad Diriyah E-Prix.

The team will field Gary Paffett - who picked up HWA's final DTM drivers' title - and ex-McLaren Formula 1 racer Stoffel Vandoorne for the 2018/19 season before Mercedes takes over the entry for its works FE operation the following season.

"It's completely new," Fritz told Autosport when asked how HWA was settling into its new environment in FE.

"I guess, if you are used to the races like especially DTM [that] we did in the last decades, you know everybody in the paddock, you know what it is.

"You find out what the best lunch for her is and whatever, so it's a good and exciting situation.

"You get in contact with lot of new people, you obviously need to study all the processes and procedures. That's a challenge for sure but that's what we are up for.

"In the end we want to have to challenge, we want to fight for wins and we want to fight for good results and without the challenge it's worth nothing."

HWA is using customer Venturi powertrains for the 2018/19 season and it will then run Mercedes' race outfit from the start of season six.

Fritz explained that HWA and Venturi are working closely together to improve their on-track chances in season five.

"We are sharing nearly everything with each other to make the product better, to make the product more reliable, to make it more performing," he said.

"Also the drivers get along with each other quite well, so I think that's a positive sign.

"The engineers are working closely together because in the end we have the chance to have double as much experience as Venturi would have with just two cars, or as we would have with just two cars.

"We need to grab this chance because we have really fierce competition out on the track with brands like BMW and Audi competing against us."