DS Techeetah, a dazzling success in four years

Motorsport is a maker of memories, telling stories that start from a detail, take winding paths and end with great results. We still remember the moment when our photographers captured the first appearance of Xavier Mestelan Pinon – then technical director of Citroën Racing – on an E-Prix, in Buenos Aires, in January 2015.

La Formula E then started timidly with rather slow and one-design cars, equipped with an electric motor Renault, and the spectacle was not what it is today, with the drivers having to change cars mid-race due to low battery life. But what was an engineer of this stature doing there, to whom we owe the Citroëns that led Sébastien Loeb et Jose Maria Lopez towards multiple world titles, respectively in WRC and WTCC.

Shortly before, the FIA ​​had in fact announced that from the following season (2016-2017), competitors would be able to develop their own powertrain and gearbox, while being free to modify the suspension mounting points back. By digging a little deeper, we will learn that it was in reality DS Automobiles and not Citroën which was studying an arrival in the discipline, through its competition branch, whose management was going to be entrusted to… Xavier Mestelan Pinon.

This is how we found him in London, on June 27, 2015, for the official announcement of the birth of DS Virgin Racing in the presence of Yves Bonnefont, CEO of DS Automobiles, Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin, and Alex Tai, one of his henchmen placed at the head of the stable. In Virgin Racing, DS Performance found a marketing partner of choice, and a team having just concluded its first season in 5th place (out of 10 teams entered) in the Teams and Drivers rankings (Sam Bird). But would the Anglo-French mayonnaise work?

Season 2: Tensile debut

Alongside Bird, DS Virgin enlists Jean-Eric Vergne, who is coming off a convincing partial season with Andretti with three poles and two podiums. But things go badly between Tai and the French clan. The main team does not miss an opportunity to highlight its dogmatic spirit through curious decisions, as when he banned “JEV” from starting the Buenos Aires E-Prix on the pretext that he had suffered food poisoning the day before – like 50% of the paddock – while the doctors at the FIA ​​gave him the green light. That day, two of the four cars will remain in the garage and… Bird will win.

At the end of the season, the accounts were modest: two podiums for the Frenchman (9th in the championship) and a victory for Bird, who finished 4th, but far from Nicolas Cheers, 3rd aboard his Renault e.dams. The rag burns between France and England and the divorce is already pronounced on DS's side... but there are still two seasons of contract to honor before “Frexit” materializes!

Seasons 3 and 4: Turning the page

At the start of the 2016-17 championship, DS Performance is looking for another partner. Vergne left for Techeetah, a Chinese team having bought Aguri's license and which is starting with a Renault traction chain. For its part, DS Virgin Racing entrusts its second seat to José Maria Lopez, pushed by DS Performance.

Technically speaking, DS inherited technology previously decided by Virgin Racing and the results fell short of expectations, even if Bird won the two New York E-Prixes. After a lackluster season, Lopez (9th) learned a few minutes before the start of the closing E-Prix in Montreal that he was not retained. Yet another low blow from Tai, upset by the departure of DS Performance a year later, and who wants a 100% British line-up. He then hires Alex Lynn, who had replaced the Argentinian – retained in WEC – during the two New York E-Prix.

The following season – the third overall, the fourth in the championship – differs from the previous two, the DSV-03 being powered by a block entirely designed by DS Performance. Lynn is not in the mix (17th, he will be dismissed at the end of the year), but Bird completes his best season : with six podiums including two victories, he finished 3rd, one point behind Lucas di Grassi, 2nd.

Single-seaters work better and better, but DS Performance will continue its adventure with Techeetah, with whom Jean-Eric Vergne has just won his first title. A few days after the end of the 2017-2018 campaign, the Chinese team becomes DS Techeetah and takes on the status of “constructor” team.

The French firm has designed a new powertrain, as the series prepares to put the Gen2s on the track, these new single-seaters enjoying autonomy allowing them to cover the entire race while being more efficient. Virgin Racing regains its status as a customer team, with an Audi powertrain and a lot of bitterness towards DS Performance. In the meantime, Alex Tai has disappeared from the radar.

Season 5: Consecration

The Techeetah engineers have their habits, operate like a start-up, and their integration into the procedures and premises of PSA Motorsport is painful. But having all the strengths of the team, the simulator and the engine test benches in the same place makes things easier. But the stable has three strong points : a desire to do well on both sides, some of the most efficient single-seaters, and two drivers (JEV and newcomer André Lotterer) who form one of the best pairs on the field.

The season will not, however, be a long, quiet river, with serious moments of doubt. But history will remember that if the last two races were painful for the Franco-Chinese team (no points during the first and Lotterer abandoning during the second), this allowed them to Vergne to claim a second Ranking Drivers title, and to DS Performance a well-deserved first Teams title, at the end of a campaign which will probably remain as that of the real take-off of Formula E.