DS Techeetah unveiled its all-new FIA Formula E Championship car for the 2018/19 season on Monday in its new facility in France.
The new partnership between DS Performance and Techeetah will kick-start officially from pre-season testing later this month with the first Formula E race for the 2018/19 season set for December 15 in Saudi Arabia.
The brand new DS E-TENSE FE 19 Gen2 Formula E car was revealed in its new premises in Versailles in France with regular drivers, reigning champion Jean-Eric Vergne and Andre Lotterer present for the launch event.
Aside the regular drivers who stay on for their second all-electric season in a row with the outfit, the Chinese team will continue on with James Rossiter and Guanyu Zhou as well as their development drivers.
“It is with great pleasure that we have now officially begun our partnership with DS and embarked on our first year as DS Techeetah. We’re also delighted to announce that Jean-Eric Vergne and his outstanding team-mate from season four, Andre Lotterer will both continue with the team this season.
“With Jean-Eric and Andre as our drivers and James Rossiter and Zhou Guanyu as our development drivers this year, we believe that we have an incredibly strong driver line-up and we are incredibly excited to go racing,” said team principal Mark Preston.
DS Performance Director, Xavier Mestelan Pinon, added: “We’ve been busy behind the scenes developing the DS E-TENSE FE19 and it’s great to have the full force of Techeetah on board so that we can continue to optimise our package for the 2018/2019 season and beyond.
“In addition to a strong driver line-up, we’ve also got an incredibly talented engineering and technical pool at hand – a combination of the best of both sides to create a fantastic DS Techeetah technical team.”
The drivers were equally thrilled to continue on especially Vergne who will be defending his Formula E crown. The Frenchman was linked to Formula 1 drives but has chosen to stay on with Techeetah in the all-electric series.
“I’m incredibly happy to continue another year with the team,” said Vergne. After winning the 2017/2018 drivers’ title and now with the addition of DS this season, we are even stronger, and it should be a great year.
“It is a very exciting time for the championship with the Gen2 car entering the all-electric street racing championship and we can expect is a new level of competition and excitement.”
Lotterer added: “The DS E-TENSE FE19 doesn’t just look fantastic, it’s also brilliant to drive. I got the taste for success in Formula E last season and I’m keen for more this year. We have a really strong team and I feel we can achieve great things together.
“With my previous experience I know how important it is to have everyone under the same roof when you work towards the same goal, so it’s a great asset for us coming into the season ahead.”
Introducing our contender for season 5 of #FormulaE the #DSETENSEFE19. pic.twitter.com/kgYYL75ROH
— DS Automobiles (@DS_Official) October 1, 2018
Formula E 2018/19 line-up till now:
Venturi: Felipe Massa & Edoardo Mortara
Jaguar Racing: Nelson Piquet Jr & Mitch Evans
Audi: Lucas di Grassi & Daniel Abt
BMW Andretti: Antonio Felix da Costa & Alexander Sims
Nissan: Sebastien Buemi & Alexander Albon
DS Techeetah: Jean-Eric Vergne & Andre Lotterer