Ahead of the start of Formula E's fifth season of competition this December, Virgin Racing has confirmed a long-term, multi-year technical agreement with Audi Sport which will see the British marque be powered by the German manufacturer for the coming 2018/19 campaign.
After running through Season Four as a works team through a collaboration with DS Automobiles, the team will become one of Formula E's two independent outfits for Season Five, with Audi supplying the team with its all-new e-tron FE05 cars to the squad while DS Performance will in turn supply powertrains to Techeetah.
“After four fantastic seasons securing seven wins and 19 podiums, and recently, a successful partnership with DS Automobiles, we have opted to take a new direction for the next generation of Formula E,” said Sylvain Filippi, team principal of Virgin Racing.
“From the outset, it was always the team’s intention to partner with an OEM as Virgin’s core business areas don’t involve the production of automobiles.
"With Audi Sport together with the drive of our majority team owner Envision, we feel this is the perfect partnership to ensure we continue fighting at the front of the grid.”
For Season Five, Formula E will see considerable changes including the introduction of the all-new Gen2 car which will have double the battery storage of the series' first generation Spark SRT 01E machinery while cars will also have a 50kW increase in power.
Dieter Gass, Head of Audi Motorsport, described the deal between Virgin Racing and Audi as a "pleasure" and is aiming for not only points finishing performances but podium scoring recipe for Season Five:
“We are glad that in the new Formula E season together with Virgin Racing four Audi e-tron FE05 cars will fight for points and trophies.
"The team has been one of the key players in Formula E ever since the series was founded – both in terms of its racing performances and all off-track activities.
"This makes Virgin Racing’s choice of using our powertrain a particular pleasure. This confidence also confirms the excellent work that our engineers are doing together with their colleagues from our development partner Schaeffler," he added.
While Virgin Racing's driver lineup remains currently unconfirmed, it is understood that Sam Bird will remain with the team for a fifth season while Robin Frijns is set to replace Alex Lynn.
Virgin Racing will unveil its Season Five challenger on October 5 ahead of pre-season testing which commences on October 16 at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain.
