Breaking news

Formula E

Virgin reveals Gen2 Formula E livery, hires Frijns

Virgin Racing will pair Robin Frijns with Sam Bird for the 2018/19 Formula E championship.

Alex Kalinauckas

Edited: Oct 9, 2018, 12:55 AM

Copy link

Share on Viber

Add as a preferred source

Virgin Racing Gen2 Formula E car

The team revealed the livery it will use on its customer Audi e-tron FE05 cars on Friday morning, as well as announcing its line-up for the coming campaign.

Frijns, a factory Audi driver, raced with Andretti in FE's second and third seasons before the team's technical relationship with BMW led to him losing that drive ahead of season four.

His deal to race with Virgin had been expected for some time and was confirmed at a live launch event held at the team's Silverstone Park base on Friday.

"I'm very excited to be returning to Formula E with Envision Virgin Racing," said Frijns.

"It's great to be joining such a strong team and with the work we've already completed, it's clear we have a very good package.

"We now look ahead to pre-season testing, where we'll be able to better gauge our on-track performance."

Bird, who finished third in the 2017/18 standings but kept the title battle with eventual champion Jean-Eric Vergne alive until the season four finale weekend in New York, said: "It's great to be remaining with the team for a fifth season.

"The relationship we have developed over the last 45 races has been incredible and I'm excited to see it continue to strengthen.

"Season five is a new era for every team - with the introduction of the Gen2 car - but particularly for us, as we are now joined by [majority owner, the digital energy company] Envision Group.

"The team has worked tirelessly over the summer and is ready to return to the track for pre-season testing."

By signing Frijns, Virgin has dropped Alex Lynn after one season - although the Briton also raced for the squad in the 2016/17 round in New York as a stand in for the absent Jose Maria Lopez.

Virgin's managing director Sylvain Filippi thanked Lynn "for all his hard work behind the wheel last season".

"We're delighted to be collaborating with such an innovative, like-minded and sustainability-focused company like Envision Group," said Filippi.

"For us, Formula E has always been more than just a racing championship, it's a chance to be truly innovative and help accelerate change towards a better future.

"As such, we've always been passionate about addressing the wider environmental issues and the reasoning behind our Race Against Climate Change programme. Now with Envision Group onboard, we feel we can strengthen this message even further."

Virgin has not announced whether it will have a replacement for Alex Tai as team principal in season five, although Lei Zhang - Envision founder and CEO - explained that the squad "will be guided by Franz Jung, the vice president of Envision smart mobility and the chairman of the board of Envision Virgin Racing".

"With his rich experience in automotive industry as a former senior executive of German premium brands," Zhang added. "I'm confident in the team for the coming season."

2018/19 Formula E line-up so far:

Team Drivers Nissan e.dams

Sebastien Buemi

Thailand Alexander Albon

Audi

Brazil Lucas di Grassi

Germany Daniel Abt

Mahindra TBA Virgin Racing

Sam Bird

Netherlands Robin Frijns

Techeetah-DS

France Jean-Eric Vergne

Germany Andre Lotterer

Dragon

Jose Maria Lopez

TBA

Jaguar

New Zealand Mitch Evans

Brazil Nelson Piquet Jr

NIO TBA Venturi

Brazil Felipe Massa

Italy Edoardo Mortara

Andretti-BMW

Portugal Antonio Felix da Costa

United Kingdom Alexander Sims

HWA TBA

Virgin Racing Gen2 Formula E car

Photo by: Virgin Racing

We want your opinion!

What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?

Take our 5 minute survey.

- The Motorsport.com Team

Read and post comments

Share Or Save This Story

Copy link

Share on Viber

Previous article Audi reveals season five e-tron FE05 car

Next article Frijns Virgin FE deal "nothing to do with Audi"

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

View More & Comment

Latest news

TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale

NASCAR Cup

NAS NASCAR Cup

Homestead-Miami

3 h

TV ratings released for NASCAR Cup season finale

Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role

NASCAR Truck

NSTR NASCAR Truck

Homestead

4 h

Chase Elliott's car chief leaves Hendrick for NASCAR Truck crew chief role

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

Formula 1

The surprising convergence behind F1's increasingly competitive 2026 season

“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return

Formula 1

F1 Formula 1 8 h

“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return

Feature

Discover prime content

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

Formula E

By James Newbold

Why ‘Mr Formula E’ has called time on his racing career

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

Formula E

London ePrix II

By Ed Hardy

The team orders debacle that made for a controversial Formula E title decider

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Formula E

London ePrix I

By Ed Hardy

The 'incredible stories' that could be told in Formula E's London title decider

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

General

By Maciej Hamera

Cars, stars, and the shootout winners from the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed

Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.

From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.

You have 2 options:

Become a subscriber.
Disable your adblocker.

Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here

Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page

Manage Alerts