Virgin

**Virgin Racing** was a British Formula International team owned by the Virgin Group. One of the first teams to enter in Formula E back in 2015, Virign spent the 2015-2019 years as a top team. Following the restructuring of the motorsport ladder, Virgin began as a strong presence in the midfield and would occasionaly win races, with the most racent coming in 2021. However, from 2025, the team started experiencing financial troubles and dwindled down into the backmarker group, often struggling to score points in first place. After several difficult years, finances dried up in 2029 and the team announced they would leave the sport. The assets abd headquarters were acquired by British oil giants BP, who formed the succesful BP Silverstone team.

## Origins and Formula E History

The Virgin Group, a British venture capital conglomerate formed by Richard Branson and Nik Powell, had expressed a desire to enter motorsport in the new millenium and sponsored the title-winning Brawn GP in 2009. In 2010, they announced they would own a significant stake of newcomers Manor GP and the team ran from 2010 to 2011 as Virgin Racing. However, in 2012, their stake was sold to Marussia Motors, thus causing Manor to drop the Virgin name from the team. In those two years, the team failed to score points.

In 2013, Virgin made their own team from scratch and joined Formula E two years later for the inaugural season. From 2015 to 2019, the team was one of the most competitive of the series and always managed to finish in the top 5 in the standings and scored several wins, with Sam Bird being the star driver.

## 2020-2024: Established midfielders

In 2020, Virgin signed two newcomers much like every team, Antoine Robespierre and Doug Tosser-Schmidt. The team was well established in the midfield, which was a bit of a downturn considering their great years in Formula E, and Robespierre scored the team's only podium of the year. Ιn 2021, the team signed a new lineup, Mario Leduc and Sake Okasas. Leduc had a strong start, winning the second race and briefly leading the standings, but fizzled out later. Still, he managed to finish 8th. Okasas scored some decent points but was forced to sit out the last 5 races due to an injury sustained in Seoul. Test driver Roman Massey was promoted and scored 12 points.

Massey was given a full-time seat for 2022 and fellow prospect Jason Leung was signed from rivals Nio. With their new talented duo, the team finished 5th and was the best of the rest, scoring 137 points and 5 podiums, with Massey scoring a best result of second for the team. However, both drivers left after this season and the team also saw a downturn in performances for 2023. The team ran Francesco Virgolini and the returning Tosser-Schmidt, with Virgolini scoring what was the team's last ever podium. Both drivers left the team and American duo Norman Power and Jarvan Lightshield joined the team, with less success than last year.

## 2025-2029: Decline, financial problems and shutdown

In 2025, Virgin fell down to the backmarker group as financial problems started to show up on the horizon. Okasas returned for a second time in the team and Andrei Aimansha was also signed. The team experienced a horrible year, with Okasas scoring 3 points and Aimansha 2. Another new lineup was signed for 2026, with 16-year old prospect Jonathan Thor, the first 2010-born driver to race in FI and Rayan Hils, brother of former Williams driver Rock Hils, joining. Things went even worse as the team failed to score points for the first time in their history. For 2027, Virgin signed two other rookies, Viola Fitzau and Robert Gine. The team failed to score points again and this time were the only team to do so, finishing last. Michael Konig also substituted Gine as he was injured in mid-season.

For 2028, Gine was kept and Virgin signed the ageing Antonio Giovinazzi to replace Fitzau. Giovinazzi scored 2 points and retired at the end of the year and Gine scored only 1 point. In 2029, with finances drying up slowly, the team signed Onni Korhonen from Sauber to partner Gine. Korhonen scored the team's last point as in the end of the years, Virgin ran out of money and decided to leave the series in the end of the year. The assets and homebase in Silverstone were put on sale and the winners of the bid were British oil manufacturer BP, who rebranded the team into BP Silverstone. Under the new name, BP Silverstone would rise up the grid and win the double in the 2035 season.

## Notable Drivers

* Antoine Robespierre (2020)
* Doug Tosser-Schmidt (2020, 2023)
* Mario Leduc (2021)
* Sake Okasas (2021, 2025)
* Roman Massey (2021-2022)
* Jason Leung (2022)
* Francesco Virgolini (2023)
* Jarvan Lightsheld (2024)
* Norman Power (2024)
* Andrei Aimansha (2025)
* Jonathan Thor (2026)
* Rayan Hils (2026)
* Robert Gine (2027-2029)
* Viola Fitzau (2027)
* Michael Konig (2027)
* Antonio Giovinazzi (2028)
* Onni Korhonen (2029)