Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff believes Formula E has the potential to develop dramatically over the next five years and emerge as a "serious motorsport player".
Last month, Mercedes announced its decision to join the all-electric racing series in 2019 and quit DTM at the end of 2018. The move mirrors a shift in thinking in the motor industry as major car manufacturers invest heavily in all-electric vehicles, while governments in France and the UK are planning to ban the sale of new petrol and diesel powered cars from 2040.
Mercedes' decision was soon followed by Porsche announcing its own plans to join Formula E in 2019 and end its involvement in top level Le Mans prototype racing at the end of this year. The increase in manufacturer interest has been a major boost for Formula E -- with Audi and BMW also set to increase their involvement in coming seasons -- and has raised questions over the future direction of motorsport, including Formula One.
Speaking about the decision to switch to Formula E, Wolff says the potential growth of the all-electric series meant it was an opportunity Mercedes could not ignore.
"Electrification is happening as we speak," he said. "The technology [in Formula E] is very immature and the racing series is very immature. But they have a very charismatic energised entrepreneur who runs the series, who has against all odds been able to attract all major German premium car manufacturers into the series.
"I would not be surprised if in three, four, five years Formula E is something totally different, and all of us might be sitting in a room like this and talking about the Formula E race.
"I think it's important to have that mindset that things are changing and probably we can't anticipate in which way things are changing. I also like the ten-cylinder [petrol] engine, but I'm not sure that in five years anybody else is going to like it apart from us."
Wolff believes there could be parallels between the growth of electric car manufacturer Tesla in the last five years -- from a company that sold just under 3,000 cars in 2012 to over 76,000 in 2016 -- and the future of Formula E.
"When you see how fast the world changes and how mobility develops, it is very difficult to foresee where the future [of motorsport] will go," he added. "Even the big technology players in America, they do lots of things in order to do the right things.
"Five years ago a Tesla was a Lotus Elise with a big battery in the boot. Today it is a serious automotive player. So Formula E for us is an exciting start-up.
"It has event character, it's urban. It attracts totally different audiences to what traditional motorsports do, and in our strategy, we cover the global platform that is Formula One and we cover the start-up that Formula E is today, in order to learn about it, how it develops and maybe that Lotus Elise is going to become a serious motorsport player in five years.
"It's a little bit like [Mercedes' parent company] Daimler overall, we are number one premium automotive manufacturer in the world and on the other side we are doing cars to go. I think you need to be flexible enough in your mindset to do both."