A leopard may not be able to change its spots, but a Techeetah can have them forcibly altered. One of Formula E’s most successful teams, with two teams’ championships and three drivers’ titles to its name, the Chinese-owned squad has lost its DS Automobiles partnership and powertrain supply to Dragon Penske Autosport. The American team hence becomes known as DS Penske for the foreseeable future, as Techeetah’s future remains distinctly unclear.
Wednesday’s announcement of the DS-Penske (not to be confused with Team Penske, run by Jay Penske’s father and motorsport deity Roger) was long in the making. It was known for some time among the Formula E paddock that DS would be embarking on a new relationship with the back-of-the-grid Dragon Penske squad, and the signings of new champion Stoffel Vandoorne and two-time title winner Jean-Eric Vergne were imminent too. Yet, it’s been one of the last pieces of the silly season jigsaw puzzle to remain in the box, as it seemingly took a while to link all four corners up first.
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That’s possibly because there was no desperate need to announce the shuffle so soon, and possibly because it’s taken time to transplant the DS contingent within the Techeetah team into Jay Penske’s squad. Or rather, remove the last vestiges of the Techeetah involvement from the DS headquarters in Versailles and bring its new squeeze in, presumably also finding space in the magazine racks for the publications under Penske’s ownership.
At this juncture I’m sure that you, dear reader, have many questions that require answering. There are many strands to the DS/Techeetah/Dragon Penske story that, on the face of it, don’t make a lick of sense. Let’s at least try to put some meat on the bones of the silly season’s sleeper hit as the 2022-23 grid finally nears completion.
Why is DS breaking up with a team it has won titles with?
Alternatively, why is DS starting a partnership with a team that hasn’t won a race since Formula E’s second season? There’s a common factor in both decisions: money, or the lack thereof in one of those cases.
When Techeetah first came into Formula E, it did so as a buyout of Aguri Suzuki’s Team Aguri. Chinese media conglomerate SECA purchased the squad, installed a supply of customer Renault powertrains, and took Jean-Eric Vergne to the drivers’ crown at the climax of the original generation era in 2017-18. This brought DS into play, as the French manufacturer was on the hunt for greater involvement in a team having broken up with Virgin Racing. Thus, it brought Techeetah over to the new Versailles base which allowed the two entities to work closely together, marking continued dominance in Formula E.
But the Techeetah side then began to run out of cash. SECA was not willing to put the money up as it had done at the start, and was looking for investors or sponsors to cover the self-inflicted shortfall. DS, meanwhile, seemingly had no designs on operating its own race team - but ended up covering a lot of the costs in the final two seasons to keep the team going, including driver contracts and many of the team’s other outgoings.
It makes sense for DS to hop in and deliver Dragon’s supply of powertrains on a manufacturer basis. With a fully funded team already in operation, DS won’t have to offer any bailouts to stay on the grid, and thus has a relationship that should be much more to its liking
This was not a position that DS wished to be left in, as its apparent preferred structure is in being a manufacturer of powertrains rather than having to fund a full race team in addition. Otherwise, it would have simply purchased the Techeetah entry much like Nissan has recently done with the e.dams squad.
That’s where Dragon Penske comes in, as the ex-IndyCar team began its Formula E journey in competitive form in the opening pair of seasons before becoming one of the traditional backmarker entities. After six years of running its own powertrains, Dragon’s plan was to ditch its own-brand concoction and bring German engineering giant Bosch in to develop a powertrain for the Gen3 era. That deal then fell through on the eve of the 2021-22 season, leaving Dragon needing to find a new partner.
Thus, it makes sense for DS to hop in and deliver Dragon’s supply of powertrains on a manufacturer basis. With a fully funded team already in operation, DS won’t have to offer any bailouts to stay on the grid, and thus has a relationship that should be much more to its liking. While Dragon has not performed particularly well in recent years, much of that has been due to the limitations in powertrain design – a problem it is less likely to face with the might of a title-winning manufacturer in its camp. DS has also set about placing its own staff within the team, with ex-Techeetah team principal Thomas Chevaucher once again returning to help lead the DS operations.
Why is Formula E’s current champion moving to a team that scored two points last year?
Now that the DS rationale has been explained, that question might be a little disingenuous. But it’s worth talking about Stoffel Vandoorne’s move to DS and the implications thereof, particularly as his stock has risen with his 2021-22 title triumph.
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With Mercedes’ departure, one may imagine that Ian James would wish to retain continuity within McLaren on a driving front given the changes in ownership and switch to Nissan powertrains. But both Vandoorne and Nyck de Vries were in the somewhat strange scenario that the company which had bought the team they were driving for had given them both the flick in the past; Vandoorne was let go at the end of 2018 after two years of toil in sub-par machinery, while de Vries’ time in the junior academy largely coincided with Lando Norris’ rise and Ron Dennis’ exit. It was probably not a surprise that neither wished to stay.
In the context of Vandoorne’s Formula E career, a manufacturer contract gives him not only the security that every racing driver craves, but also the opportunity to try other categories. His new team-mate Vergne has found being part of the DS family also grants access to the other Stellantis brands, and the Frenchman is part of the Peugeot Hypercar line-up. It may not bear any fruit for the time being, as the Peugeot seat to be vacated by James Rossiter looks set to be going to Nico Muller, but that can change in the future.
Hypothetically, Alfa Romeo could be looking for alternative involvement in racing as its F1 badging deal with Sauber is set to expire at the end of 2023. To continue baseless conjecture, Stellantis may also like the look of the LMDh regulations and fancy getting Chrysler involved, particularly to fight against the Cadillac and Acura brands. The point is that with 16 brands, the automotive collective is a good one to be a part of if Vandoorne fancies any extra-curricular activities. He’s explored IMSA and WEC before, so it would be no surprise if he wants to keep his hand in with endurance racing.
While it may, on the face of it, look like Vandoorne is dropping from the title-winning Mercedes outfit to a perennial struggler which only managed points through Sergio Sette Camara’s brilliance in London, that’s not quite the scenario. Instead, the works Mercedes driver is moving to the works DS team – which immediately sounds considerably more palatable.
For Vergne, the move to DS Penske is effectively a continuation of the situation he’s raced in for the past four seasons. The engineers and the management will be the same, and so will the overall environment that he has become accustomed to among his most successful years in Formula E. With no apparent desire to move away from DS, particularly with his Peugeot WEC role supplementing that, the Parisian represents vital continuity.
What will happen to Techeetah?
This is the most difficult question to answer, because we’re not even sure Techeetah knows the answer. Mark Preston, Techeetah’s team principal before the restructuring that put Chevaucher in charge, has been working on finding external funding to keep the team going. But as the new season gets ever closer, the team’s presence on the grid for the start of the Gen3 era looks increasingly unlikely.
Because of the team’s move to the DS facilities in France, Techeetah doesn’t actually have a base to work from. There is the possibility that it could move into the facilities vacated by Dragon Penske as it moves the other way, but this is just one of the issues that Techeetah currently faces. Finding a powertrain supplier is another issue, and getting hold of a DS or a Maserati powertrain (depending on how different the two actually are...) might prove to be difficult given the breakdown of the previous relationship.
Drivers are arguably the least of the team’s worries and, if the team requires experience at short notice, both Oliver Turvey and Maximilian Guenther would be available
The only other manufacturer yet to commit to a customer supply is NIO 333. While the Anglo-Chinese squad is confident about its new powertrain, it may not wish to dilute its recent efforts in getting its own house in order by committing resources to a customer supply. Jaguar has said that it will not supply any more powertrains beyond its own team and Envision, while Porsche, Mahindra, and Nissan have their own customer outfits too.
Drivers are arguably the least of the team’s worries and, if the team requires experience at short notice, both Oliver Turvey and Maximilian Guenther would be available. But it looks likely that it’s not even going to come to that; if Techeetah emerges from its enforced hibernation for winter testing in preparation for the opening round in Mexico, it would be comeback of Lazarian proportions.
