British Formula E team
The
Envision Racing Formula E Team
[1]
is a British
motor racing
team, based at Silverstone Park and majority-owned by Chinese wind turbine manufacturer
Envision Energy
[2]
that competes in
Formula E
.
[3]
Currently, the two drivers are
Robin Frijns
and
Sebastien Buemi
.
History
[
edit
]
Virgin was one of the first teams to enter Formula E, its entry was officially confirmed in December 2013.
[4]
Virgin partnered with
Peugeot
but rebadged as
DS Automobiles
from the
2015?16 season
[5]
to the
2017?18 season
, competing as
DS Virgin Racing
during that time. With DS moving its support to rival team
Techeetah
from the
2018?19 season
onwards, Virgin chose to establish a long-term customer car deal with
Audi Sport
.
[6]
2014?15 season
[
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]
The team signed drivers
Jaime Alguersuari
and
Sam Bird
for its inaugural season.
[7]
Bird scored three podiums (two of which were wins), which was enough for a fifth place in the Drivers' Championship. For the final round in
London
, which was a double-header event, the team replaced Alguersuari with
Fabio Leimer
.
[8]
Virgin would finish fifth in Teams' Championship with 133 points.
2015?16 season
[
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]
For its second season, Virgin confirmed
Sam Bird
and
Jean-Eric Vergne
, who moved to the team from
Andretti Autosport
.
[9]
It was the first season in partnership with
Peugeot
but rebadged as
DS Performance
. The season was fairly successful, as the team recorded four pole positions (three with Bird, one with Vergne). The team finished third in Teams' Championship with 144 points.
2016?17 season
[
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]
For the 2016?17 season, Virgin signed
Jose Maria Lopez
to partner Bird who stayed in the team.
[10]
Lopez was forced to miss the
New York City ePrix
due to his commitments in the
FIA WEC
series. For this event, he was temporarily replaced by
Alex Lynn
.
[11]
Lynn retired from both races, but scored a pole position on his debut. Bird, on the other hand, won both of these races. Lynn was later signed to the team for the next season as a full-time driver.
[12]
Lopez returned to finish the season at the
Montreal ePrix
and finished his last race with the team on a podium as he finished third.
Virgin improved their points score to 190 points, but it was only enough for a fourth place in Teams' Championship.
2017?18 season
[
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]
Virgin fielded Bird and the returning
Alex Lynn
for its fourth season. Bird was in contention for the Drivers' Championship as the main rival for
Jean-Eric Vergne
(who competed for
Techeetah
at the time), however, he got overtaken by
Lucas di Grassi
in the final weekend of the season in
New York City
, thus finished third. Lynn was unable to keep up with Bird for the entire campaign and was not kept for the next season.
Virgin would finish third in Teams' Championship with 160 points. This season would mark the end of the partnership with DS.
2018?19 season
[
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]
For the 2018?19 season, as Peugeot-DS ended their partnership with the team, Virgin opted to become a customer team by switching to
Audi
powertrains. This move allowed the team to sign
Robin Frijns
, an Audi factory driver, as Bird's teammate.
[13]
The team also signed a sponsorship deal with Chinese wind turbine manufacturer
Envision Energy
, leading to the team rebrand to
Envision Virgin Racing
.
The Audi e-tron FE05 powertrain proved to be very competitive, giving Virgin a chance at multiple strong results. The team would finish third in Teams' Championship with 191 points, just a point ahead of
Nissan e.dams
. Both Bird and Frijns would find themselves at the top of the Drivers' Championship at various points during the season, but only finished ninth and fourth respectively.
2019?20 season
[
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]
Bird and Frijns were retained for the
2019?20 season
along with the Audi customer deal.
[14]
Bird won the
2019 Diriyah ePrix
and got a podium in Race 1 of the
2020 Berlin ePrix
. Frijns had a poor start until the season stopped due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
. He then scored two podiums at Race 3 and 5 of the Berlin ePrix. Bird and Frijns finished 10th and 12th respectively that season and Envision Virgin finished 4th in the Teams’ Championship.
2020?21 season
[
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]
After six seasons with the outfit, Bird left Virgin to join
Jaguar Racing
.
[15]
In July 2020, the team announced reigning
Super Formula
champion
Nick Cassidy
would partner Frijns for the
2020?21 season
.
[16]
2021?22 season
[
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]
Following the 2020?21 season Virgin left the team as a partner and the team re-branded as Envision Racing, and introduced a new green livery for its entry. Cassidy and Frijns were retained as drivers, while
Alice Powell
became the Simulator and Development Driver for the team.
Results
[
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]
- Notes
- ^1
? In the inaugural season, all teams were supplied with a
spec
powertrain by
McLaren
.
- ^2
? Powertrain developed by
DS
Performance,
[17]
branded as Virgin.
[18]
- G
? Driver was fastest in group qualifying stage and was given one championship point.
Notes
[
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]
- ^
Simulator and development driver.
References
[
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]
External links
[
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]
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