Frijns joins Bird as Virgin reveals Gen2 Formula E car

Robin Frijns will partner Sam Bird for the 2018/19 Formula E championship at the Virgin Racing squad.

Virgin unveiled its season five Gen2 challenger – featuring a revised livery concept – at its Silverstone headquarters on Friday, alongside confirming its driver line-up for the upcoming campaign.

The British squad announced a new identity as part of its collaboration with Envision Group and will use customer Audi e-tron FE05 cars after ending its partnership with DS Automobiles, which has moved to link-up with Techeetah.

Audi factory driver Frijns replaces Alex Lynn at Virgin following a year in DTM, having previously raced in the all-electric series with Andretti for two seasons before it became a fully-fledged BMW factory outfit for 2017/18.

“I’m very excited to be returning to Formula E with Envision Virgin Racing,” Frijns said. “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 will remain with the Virgin squad he has contested every Formula E campaign with so far, having finished third in the drivers’ standings behind champion Jean-Eric Vergne and Lucas di Grassi last season.

“It’s great to be remaining with the team for a fifth season,” the Briton added. “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 Envision Group.

“The team has worked tirelessly over the summer and are ready to return to the track for pre-season testing.”

Virgin scored two wins courtesy of Bird and finished third in the 2017/18 teams’ championship, over 100 points adrift of runners-up Techeetah and the title-winning Audi squad.

“We’re delighted to be collaborating with such an innovative, like-minded and sustainability-focused company like Envision Group,” Virgin’s managing director Sylvain Filippi added.

“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.”