Envision Virgin Racing

The Envision Virgin Racing Formula E Team is a British motor racing team based at Silverstone Park, UK and majority-owned by Envision Energy[1] that competes in Formula E.[2]

For the former Formula One team, see Virgin Racing.

Envision Virgin Racing
Founded2013
Team principal(s)Sylvain Filippi
Current seriesFormula E
Current drivers Sam Bird
Robin Frijns

Currently, the two drivers are Sam Bird and Robin Frijns.

History

Virgin was one of the first teams to enter Formula E, its entry was officially confirmed in December 2013.[3] Virgin partnered with DS Automobiles from the 2015–16 season[4] 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.[5]

2014–15 season

The team signed drivers Jaime Alguersuari and Sam Bird for its inaugural season.[6] 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.[7] Virgin would finish fifth in Teams' Championship with 133 points.

2015–16 season

For its second season, Virgin confirmed Sam Bird and Jean-Éric Vergne, who moved to the team from Andretti Autosport.[8] It was the first season in partnership with 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

For the 2016–17 season, Virgin signed José María López to partner Bird who stayed in the team.[9] López 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.[10] 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.[11] López 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
Sam Bird driving the DS Virgin DSV-03 at the 2018 New York City ePrix.

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-Éric 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 would mark the end of the partnership with DS.

2018–19 season

For the 2018–19 season, Virgin became a customer team by switching to Audi powertrains. This move allowed the team to sign Robin Frijns, Audi's factory driver, to partner Bird.[12] As DS was no longer in partnership with Virgin, the team got rebranded 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, only 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

Bird and Frijns were retained for the 2019–20 season along with the Audi customer deal.[13]

Results
Year Chassis Powertrain Tyres No. Drivers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Points T.C.
Virgin Racing
2014–15 Spark SRT01-e SRT01-e1 M BEI PUT PDE BUE MIA LBH MCO BER MSC LON 133 5th
2 Sam Bird 3 1 Ret 7 8 Ret 4 8 Ret 6 1
3 Jaime Alguersuari 11 9 5 4 11 8 Ret 12 13
Fabio Leimer 14 Ret
DS Virgin Racing
2015–16 Spark SRT01-e Virgin Racing Engineering2 DSV-01 M BEI PUT PDE BUE MEX LBH PAR BER LON 144 3rd
2 Sam Bird 7 2 Ret 1 6 6 6 11 7 Ret
25 Jean-Éric Vergne 12 Ret 7 11 16 13† 2 5 3 8
2016–17 Spark SRT01-e DS Virgin DSV-02 M HKG MRK BUE MEX MCO PAR BER NYC MTL 190 4th
2 Sam Bird 13 2 Ret 3 Ret 16 7 7 1 1 5 4
37 José María López Ret 10 10 6 Ret 2 4 5 Ret 3
Alex Lynn Ret Ret
2017–18 Spark SRT01-e DS Virgin DSV-03 M HKG MRK SCL MEX PDE RME PAR BER ZUR NYC 160 3rd
2 Sam Bird 1 5 3 5 Ret 3 1 3 7 2 9 10
36 Alex Lynn 8 9 10 Ret 10 6 Ret 14 16 16 Ret 14
Envision Virgin Racing
2018–19 Spark SRT05e Audi e-tron FE05 M ADR MRK SCL MEX HKG SYX RME PAR MCO BER BRN NYC 191 3rd
2 Sam Bird 11 3 1 9 6 Ret 11 11 16† 9 4 8 4
4 Robin Frijns 12 2 5 11 3 11 4 1 17† 13 Ret Ret 1
2019–20 Spark SRT05e Audi e-tron FE06 M DIR SCL MEX MRK SYX RME PAR SEO JAK BER NYC LON 39* 7th*
2 Sam Bird 1G Ret 10 Ret 10
4 Robin Frijns 5 Ret 15 DSQ 12
Notes
  • ^1 – In the inaugural season, all teams were supplied with a spec powertrain by McLaren.
  • ^2 – Powertrain developed by DS Performance[14], branded as Virgin.[15]
  • G – Driver was fastest in group qualifying stage and was given one championship point.
  • † – Driver did not finish the race, but was classified as he completed over 90% of the race distance.
  • * – Season still in progress.

References
  1. Kalinauckas, Alex. "Virgin sells majority stake in Formula E team to Chinese company". Autosport.com. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  2. "Virgin Racing". FIA Formula E Championship. Archived from the original on 7 December 2013. Retrieved 10 December 2013.
  3. "Virgin enters Formula E electric car racing series". BBC News. 5 December 2013. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  4. "Citroen poised to enter Formula E". Racer. Racer Media & Marketing, Inc. 7 May 2015. Archived from the original on 9 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  5. Kalinauckas, Alex. "Virgin's 'multi-year' Audi Formula E supply deal announced". Autosport.com. Retrieved 21 September 2018.
  6. "Jaime Alguersuari and Sam Bird join Virgin Racing". Formula E Operations. Formula E. 13 May 2014. Archived from the original on 30 August 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
  7. "Fabio Leimer in Alguersuari out at Virgin Racing". Formula E Zone. 23 June 2015. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  8. Biesbrouck, Tim (8 August 2015). "DS Virgin Racing confirms Sam Bird and Jean-Eric Vergne". Electric Autosport. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  9. Clarkson, Natalie (11 July 2016). "DS Virgin Racing name new driver". Virgin. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  10. "Alex Lynn gets DS Virgin call-up for New York". FIA Formula E. 28 June 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  11. "Lynn joins Bird for full-time drive at DS Virgin". FIA Formula E. 5 September 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  12. Kilshaw, Jake (5 October 2018). "Frijns Confirmed Alongside Bird at Envision Virgin". e-racing365.com. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  13. Smith, Sam (11 June 2019). "Bird, Frijns to Remain at Envision Virgin for 2019-20". e-racing365.com. Retrieved 4 September 2019.
  14. Kane, Mark (8 September 2015). "DS Performance To Support Virgin Racing In Formula E". InsideEVs. Retrieved 3 August 2019.
  15. "BEIJING E-PRIX - Official Starting List" (PDF). FIA Formula E. Retrieved 23 August 2019.
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