The Envision Racing Formula E Team is a British

motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of t ...

team based at Silverstone Park and majority-owned by Chinese wind turbine manufacturer

Envision Energy Envision Energy () is a Chinese multinational corporation headquartered in Shanghai that provides wind turbines and energy management software. History Envision was founded by Lei Zhang in 2007 in Jiangyin, Jiangsu in the east region of China ...

that competes in

Formula E Formula E, officially the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, is a single-seater motorsport championship for electric cars. The series was conceived in 2011 in Paris by FIA president Jean Todt and Spanish businessman Alejandro Agag, wh ...

. Currently, the two drivers are

Nick Cassidy Nick Cassidy (born 19 August 1994) is a New Zealand racing driver, currently competing in Formula E for Envision Racing, and in the World Endurance Championship and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters with AF Corse. He has won the 2017 championship in ...

and

Sébastien Buemi Sébastien Olivier Buemi (born 31 October 1988) is a Swiss professional racing driver, who competes in the FIA Formula E Championship for Envision Racing. He competed for Scuderia Toro Rosso in Formula One from 2009 to 2011. After leaving Formula ...

History

Virgin was one of the first teams to enter Formula E, its entry was officially confirmed in December 2013. Virgin partnered with

Peugeot Peugeot (, , ) is a French brand of automobiles owned by Stellantis. The family business that preceded the current Peugeot companies was founded in 1810, with a steel foundry that soon started making hand tools and kitchen equipment, and then ...

but rebadged as

DS Automobiles DS Automobiles is a French luxury vehicle marque which was introduced in 2009. Formerly part of Citroën, DS has been a standalone brand since 2015 (2012 in China). DS can be an abbreviation of Different Spirit or Distinctive Series, although it ...

from the 2015–16 season to the 2017–18 season, competing as DS Virgin Racing during that time. With DS moving its support to rival team

Techeetah DS Techeetah (, ) is a Sino-French motor racing team under ownership of SECA - China Media Capital that competes in the electric racing series, Formula E. Formula E Team Aguri principal Aguri Suzuki announced he would leave the team in April 2 ...

from the 2018–19 season onwards, Virgin chose to establish a long-term customer car deal with Audi Sport.

2014–15 season

The team signed drivers

Jaime Alguersuari Jaime Víctor Alguersuari Escudero (; born 23 March 1990), also known as Jaume Alguersuari (), and Squire is a Spanish DJ and retired racing driver best known for competing in Formula One between and , and for being the 2008 British Formula 3 ...

and

Sam Bird Sam Jamie Bird (born 9 January 1987) is a British people, British professional racing driver who currently drives for Jaguar Racing, Jaguar TCS Racing in the Formula E, FIA Formula E World Championship. Career Formula BMW Bird made his name ...

for its inaugural season. 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 London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, which was a double-header event, the team replaced Alguersuari with

Fabio Leimer Fabio Leimer (born 17 April 1989) is a former professional racing driver from Switzerland. He is best known for winning the 2013 GP2 Series. Career Karting Like many of today's racing drivers, Rothrist-born Leimer started his career in karting ...

. Virgin would finish fifth in Teams' Championship with 133 points.

2015–16 season

For its second season, Virgin confirmed

and

Jean-Éric Vergne Jean-Éric Vergne (born 25 April 1990), also known as JEV, is a French racing driver who competes in the FIA Formula E Championship with Dragon Racing. He became the 2017–18 ABB Formula E Champion, after clinching fifth in the New York ePrix ...

, who moved to the team from

Andretti Autosport Andretti Autosport is an auto racing team that competes in the IndyCar Series, Indy Lights, Indy Pro 2000, and Formula E. The team also has a 37.5% ownership stake in the Australian Supercars Championship touring car team, Walkinshaw Andretti ...

. It was the first season in partnership with

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

For the 2016–17 season, Virgin signed

José María López José María "Pechito" López (born 26 April 1983) is an Argentine race car driver who is currently competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship with Toyota Gazoo Racing and 2014–2016 World Touring Car Champion. He raced in the 2006 GP ...

to partner Bird who stayed in the team. López was forced to miss the

New York City ePrix The New York City ePrix is an annual race of the single-seater, electrically powered Formula E championship held in Brooklyn, New York. The inaugural event, the 2017 New York City ePrix, was a two-race event on July 15–16, 2017. Allianz E-Vil ...

due to his commitments in the

FIA WEC The FIA World Endurance Championship is an auto racing world championship organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The series supersedes the ACO's former Intercont ...

series. For this event, he was temporarily replaced by

Alex Lynn Alexander George Lynn (born 17 September 1993) is a British racing driver. He most recently competed in Formula E, driving for Mahindra Racing in the 2021 season, winning the second race of his home ePrix in London. Lynn has also competed full- ...

. 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. 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

DS-PERFORMANCE-FORMULAE-2018-NEW-YORK-EPRIX-224-min

Virgin fielded Bird and the returning

for its fourth season. Bird was in contention for the Drivers' Championship as the main rival for

(who competed for

at the time), however, he got overtaken by

Lucas di Grassi Lucas Tucci di Grassi (born 11 August 1984) is a Brazilian professional racing driver who competes in the FIA Formula E World Championship for Mahindra Racing. He became the FIA Formula E Champion in 2016–2017, achieved three overall podi ...

in the final weekend of the season in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, 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

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 Audi AG () is a German automotive manufacturer of luxury vehicles headquartered in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany. As a subsidiary of its parent company, the Volkswagen Group, Audi produces vehicles in nine production facilities worldwide. ...

powertrains. This move allowed the team to sign

Robin Frijns Robin Frijns (born 7 August 1991) is a Dutch motor racing driver. He is the 2012 Formula Renault 3.5 Series champion, and the first driver to have won the series in his debut season since Robert Kubica in 2005. Frijns is currently competing in F ...

, an Audi factory driver, as Bird's teammate. The team also signed a sponsorship deal with Chinese wind turbine manufacturer

, 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

Bird and Frijns were retained for the 2019–20 season along with the Audi customer deal. 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 The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. 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

After six seasons with the outfit, Bird left Virgin to join

Jaguar Racing Jaguar Racing is the name given to Jaguar Land Rover's racing interests. It currently competes in Formula E under the name Jaguar TCS Racing as a result of the partnership with Tata Consultancy Services. It was previously a Formula One constr ...

. In July 2020, the team announced reigning

Super Formula The Japanese Super Formula Championship is a formula racing series. It is considered as being the top level of single-seater racing in Japan and regional motorsports in Asia. The series is sanctioned by the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) and ...

champion

would partner Frijns for the 2020–21 season.

2021–22 season

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 Alice Elizabeth Fraser Powell (born 26 January 1993) is a British racing driver. In 2010, she became the first woman to win a Formula Renault championship and in 2012 became the first woman to score points in the GP3 Series. In 2014, she returne ...

became the Simulator and Development Driver for the team.

Results

;Notes: * – In the inaugural season, all teams were supplied with a

spec Spec may refer to: *Specification (technical standard), an explicit set of requirements to be satisfied by a material, product, or service **datasheet, or "spec sheet" People * Spec Harkness (1887-1952), American professional baseball pitcher ...

powertrain by

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited is a British motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. McLaren is best known as a Formula One constructor, the second oldest active team, and the second most successful Formu ...

. * – Powertrain developed by DS Performance, branded as Virgin. * – Driver was fastest in group qualifying stage and was given one championship point.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Virgin Racing Formula E Racing Formula E team British auto racing teams 2013 establishments in the United Kingdom Auto racing teams established in 2013 Formula E teams