Vergne to leave DS Virgin Racing for third Formula E season - MotorSportsTalk

LONDON, UK – Jean-Eric Vergne will switch teams for the third FIA Formula E season after making his final appearance for DS Virgin Racing in Sunday’s London ePrix.

Vergne joined DS Virgin for season two, racing alongside Sam Bird. However, he struggled to match his teammate for pace for much of the campaign, only scoring his first podium finish in Paris in April. Pole position followed in Berlin before another podium in London on Saturday.

However, Vergne’s future with DS Virgin had been brought into question ever since the Buenos Aires ePrix in February amid confusion over his fitness after being ruled out before ultimately racing.

Vergne dropped hints about a possible departure in the lead-up to the London weekend, before confirming after the race on Sunday that it had been his last for the team.

“Yes, it was my last race with them,” Vergne told this writer, before saying that an announcement regarding his next move in Formula E will come “soon”.

Vergne balances his commitments in Formula E with a reserve role at Scuderia Ferrari in Formula 1, having taken over from Esteban Gutierrez following the Meixcan’s move to Haas for the 2016 season.

His final race for DS Virgin ended with a time penalty after using too much energy on his final stint, resulting in 50 seconds being added to his time, costing him third place. An additional second was added for an unsafe release from the pit lane.

Team principal Alex Tai confirmed that a miscalculation on the pit wall had caused Vergne to run short on energy, eventually being classified eighth after the penalties.

“I freed JEV up to make sure he was still able to attack and race as hard as he wanted to race. I should have taken a little but more into account some of the maths that was going on in the pit lane at the same time,” Tai explained.

Vergne’s seat with DS Virgin is widely expected to be taken by two-time WTCC champion Jose Maria Lopez, who is a factory driver for Citroen, the parent company of DS.

Lopez expressed an interest in racing in Formula E over the Buenos Aires ePrix weekend in his native Argentina, and even had a seat fitting after Vergne was ruled out before eventually recovering to take part in the race.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Roger Penske spoke with Dallara executives Monday morning about the loose tire that went flying over the Indianapolis Motor Speedway catchfence and into a Turn 2 parking lot.

The left-rear wheel from Kyle Kirkwood’s No. 27 Dallara-Honda was sheared off in a collision at speed as Kirkwood tried to avoid the skidding No. 6 Dallara-Chevrolet of Felix Rosenqvist on Lap 183 of the 107^th Indianapolis 500.

No one seriously was hurt in the incident (including Kirkwood, whose car went upside down and slid for several hundred feet), though an Indianapolis woman’s Chevy Cruze was struck by the tire. The Indy Star reported a fan was seen and released from the care center after sustaining minor injuries from flying debris in the crash.

During a photo shoot Monday morning with Indy 500 winner Josef Newgarden at the IMS Yard of Bricks, Penske met with Dallara founder and owner Gian Paolo Dallara and Dallara USA CEO Stefano dePonti. The Italian company has been the exclusive supplier of the current DW12 chassis to the NTT IndyCar series for 11 years.

“The good news is we didn’t have real trouble with that tire going out (of the track),” Penske, who bought Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 2020, told a few reporters shortly afterward. “I saw it hit. When it went out, I saw we were OK. I talked to the Dallara guys today. We’re going to look at that, but I guess the shear (force) from when (Rosenqvist’s) car was sitting, (Kirkwood’s car) went over and just that shear force tore that tether. Because we have tethers on there, and I’ve never seen a wheel come off.

“That to me was probably the scariest thing. We’ve got to fix that. We’ve got to fix that so that doesn’t happen again.”

Asked by NBC Sports if IndyCar would be able to address it before Sunday’s Detroit Grand Prix or before the next oval race at Iowa Speedway, Penske said, “The technical guys should look at it. I think the speed here, a couple of hundred (mph) when you hit it vs. 80 or 90 or whatever it might be, but that was a pinch point on the race.”

In a statement released Monday to WTHR and other media outlets, IndyCar said that it was “in possession of the tire in Sunday’s incident and found that the tether did not fail. This is an isolated incident, and the series is reviewing to make sure it does not happen again. IndyCar takes the safety of the drivers and fans very seriously. We are pleased and thankful that no one was hurt.”

IndyCar provided no further explanation for how the wheel was separated from the car without the tether failing.

IndyCar began mandating wheel suspension tethers using high-performance Zylon material after a flying tire killed three fans at Charlotte Motor Speedway during a May 1, 1999 race. Three fans also were struck and killed by a tire at Michigan International Speedway during a July 26, 1998 race.

The IndyCar tethers can withstand a force of more than 22,000 pounds, and the rear wheel tethers were strengthened before the 2023 season.