DS changes teams from Techeetah to Dragon
DS Automobiles has parted company with the Techeetah team in Formula E and will be working with the US team Penske Autosport (Dragon) in the ‘Gen3’ era of the all-electric racing series from the coming season. In addition, the two drivers for 2022/2023 have been determined.
DS Techeetah was one of the most successful teams of the ‘Gen2’ era with the second generation of Formula E race cars. The Chinese team with French electric drive won two championship titles with Jean-Éric Vergne and in Season 6, which was marked by the Corona pandemic, with the Portuguese driver António Félix da Costa.
Nevertheless, rumours had been growing in recent months that the long-standing partnership might come to an end. DS will now use its Gen3 powertrains with Penske Autosport, which has been more of a backseat team in Formula E under the Dragon name. The team name Dragon has now been dropped for the upcoming season. Additionally, the team will compete under the French flag, and not with a US license as before. But DS will probably take the familiar look with the black and gold racing cars to the new partner.
In addition, DS Penske, as the team is now called, has signed up reigning Formula E world champion Stoffel Vandoorne from Mercedes for the coming year, who will compete for the team together with former champion Jean-Éric Vergne.
“Thanks to Stoffel and Jean-Eric, we probably have one of the best line-ups and also the fastest pairing on the grid,” says DS motorsport boss Thomas Chevaucher. “With the powertrain and software expertise of DS Performance, we are now in an ideal position to continue our hunt for victories and titles.”
Techeetah’s future is unclear, however. That’s because not only has the team been abandoned by its powertrain supplier, but drivers Vergne and da Costa (to Porsche) are no longer competing for Techeetah in the ‘Gen3’ era. What’s more, over the years DS had expanded its influence at Techeetah. DS motorsport boss Thomas Chevaucher was most recently also team boss and is now naturally changing fronts together with DS. Here, too, no succession arrangement is known.
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