With Rokit Venturi Racing, Envision Virgin Racing is one of the two client teams of the championship. In other words, she drives with an engine that she rents to a brand committed to the discipline. In the same way that Techeetah previously rented its powertrain to Renault (with which it will win the Drivers’ Championship in season 3), or Venturi uses a Mercedes powertrain, Envision is now working with Audi.
Virgin Racing has been involved since the first season in Formula E. It was first in its own name when everyone had the same car, then with DS Automobiles when the manufacturers entered the track. For three seasons, the team has been the owned by Envision, a Chinese energy giant (wind turbines, batteries, energy management solutions). At its head: Sylvain Filippi, a Frenchman based in England, who has made electromobility his hobbyhorse.
Auto-motorcycle: Before arriving in Berlin, you were in contention for one or both titles. Unfortunately, you did not score any points. What went wrong?
Sylvain Philippines: I would like to have precise answers to this question, but one thing is certain: we have less grip than the others on this concrete circuit. When designing the powertrain and the geometry of the car, choices have to be made on certain settings which are then fixed, and it turns out that our cars are more to their advantage on certain tracks. Here we are having trouble finding the right set-up, and we have reached the limits of what the car can do. It’s a shame that this happens in the last race of the season when there was so much to play, but it is so.
You have nevertheless scored points nine times out of fifteen races this season …
Our results are the combination of many years of work. The technicians, the engineers, the procedures that we have are the best that we have ever had. Today, we have an operational part and pilots who correspond to our expectations, and we have shown on several occasions that we have to be reckoned with. But in Formula E you have to be consistent, and it’s not easy with the qualifying format we have. But our cars are of a very good standard.
You seem more at ease on slow circuits like New York or London, where the reminders are more numerous. What makes you different from others on this point?
I think we have a rear suspension geometry that makes us more comfortable on this kind of track. The cars have a lot in common, but the settings decided by the teams make them more or less efficient depending on the situation. We are not the strongest on circuits like Berlin, on the other hand we are better than the others on tracks with 90 ° bends, which are very “downtown”. A race car is never perfect everywhere, it’s a matter of compromise.
You are a client team, you use Audi engines and you have good results. Isn’t the fact of not having the right to private trials therefore not a problem?
This is a disadvantage, especially in somewhat new cases, which we do not always understand well. Lack of test is also lack of data on its tool palette. But it’s not a disaster either, and we have a very good relationship with Audi, both friendly and productive. We help each other.
Audi is retiring at the end of the season, who will be your engine manufacturer next season?
It’s a shame that Audi is leaving, because it is a great partner. But since the approvals are valid for two years, we will still use this engine for next season.
And then, with the third generation single-seaters?
I can’t tell you anything yet. We have some very exciting plans, we are moving forward, but it’s a little too early to talk about it.
Does Envision Virgin Racing really want to be present in Gen3, and if so as a client team or in collaboration with a manufacturer?
Our wish is to be in Gen3, we are finalizing our plans. For the rest, everything is open.
Envision is building a battery plant at Renault in northern France. Doesn’t that close a few doors for you to sign with an engine manufacturer?
Not at all. Envision is a very large company that builds wind turbines, develops software and energy management solutions. It bought out the Nissan battery business and is today one of the largest cell producers in the world. All manufacturers can be our customers.
Will you keep the same drivers next year?
Absoutely. Nick Cassidy has a multi-year contract with us, and Robin Frijns is also already signed for next year. We are very happy with our drivers, and we have no reason to change. It is true that we have not communicated on the subject, because for us it is not. For the following years, we will see what will happen.
Did you organize electric car races yourself in the late 2000s. Back then did you expect the same fate for battery-powered vehicles?
I started working on electric cars in 2007 as a consultant for car manufacturers. It was the time of the development of the Nissan Leaf but also of other cars. Personally, I have always believed that electric cars were going to dominate the market, but that it was just a matter of time. They have such a higher yield that not everything else will work.
Don’t you think that we could have continued to invest in heat engines, or in lighter cars?
It wouldn’t help. In thermal, we will never exceed more than 50% of efficiency, while in electric we exceed 90%. Even a bad electric car, which is impossible to do today, will be twice as good as a thermal in terms of efficiency, at a cost that will soon be equal. We are at the end of thermal, and at the beginning of electric. This is also why hydrogen has no future for the car. Maybe for long haul trucks or static equipment, but nothing more.
So why are manufacturers like Toyota stubbornly sticking to hydrogen?
It is the only one, while many others were interested in it five years ago. But they all stopped. I guess Toyota will do the same soon. Hydrogen has no efficiency, it’s very expensive, you need very large tanks, there is no mass infrastructure and there never will be. That does not make any sense.
How to reconcile electric car and passion for cars and motorsports?
I’m 41 years old, I grew up in the automobile with V8s and I know what that can bring on an emotional level. But, already, for most people who are younger than me, this notion disappears. Even in the English market, which is quite conservative, we can see that fans are divided into several categories, often in relation to their age. This is why historic racing is very dynamic, but we can also see that there are a lot of motorsport fans who watch Formula E. Some people find it hard to admit that it is good, but they watch . In five years, Formula E has grown from 0 to 400 million spectators worldwide (cumulative audience in year 5, Editor’s note). So we intrigued and attracted motorsport fans. Concerning the youngest, thermal cars are already steam trains for them, and the electric motor remains the best technical solution for moving an object.
Why haven’t we done it before?
In 1900, the best cars on the market were electric. Then we found petroleum in Texas, Ford made its Model T, which made it possible to make a petroleum car for a tenth the cost of a battery car. 120 years later, we come back to it and rediscover that an electric car uses three times less energy to cover a given distance. Today, investments in electricity are colossal, and cells are already gaining more than 10% of energy density each year, at equal weight. Nothing progresses so quickly, but not everyone knows it yet.
To read on auto-moto.com:
The Formula E TV program
Formula E 2021 calendar: race dates and times
Entered Formula E 2021: drivers, teams, cars
