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 that competes in Formula E.
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. Virgin partnered with DS Automobiles 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 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 and Sam Bird for its inaugural season. Bird scored three podiums, 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. 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. It was the first season in partnership with DS Performance. The season was fairly successful, as the team recorded four pole positions. 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. 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. 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

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, 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. 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.

Results

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