Seoul, South Korea, August 16th - The championship made its first ever appearance in Seoul, South Korea, for the last round of the Formula E season, with two final races that looked set to prove crucial in determining the outcome of the title races.
Despite looking very sharp in dry conditions during free practice on day one, Vergne and Da Costa were unable to do better than ninth and twelfth in their DS E-TENSE FE21s when it came to qualifying, held in heavy rain. However, they both fought back in the race to finish in sixth and ninth positions. On Sunday – Formula E's 100th outing, DS TECHEETAH upped its level even further as Da Costa claimed pole position, his eighth pole with DS on his final appearance for the team. Unfortunately, he was hit by another competitor during the race as he was vying for second position. After dropping back to sixteenth place, he nevertheless managed to fight back up to finish tenth, suggesting he deserved better and clearly had the pace necessary to challenge for a podium spot. Meanwhile, Vergne managed to finish sixth again after qualifying in eighth place.
“What a day for my final race in black and gold,” said Antonio Felix Da Costa at the finish. “I was pleased to get pole position and show everyone that we were competitive and had our sights set high. I managed to hold onto the lead at the start but I didn't quite have the pace to keep up with some of the other drivers. I was third when I went into ‘Attack Mode’, but when I tried to move into second position, I was hit by another car. That scuppered my race, really. I dropped back to last position, but I still managed to fight back to tenth to grab the final point. But today isn't what I’ll remember about my three years racing for DS TECHEETAH. For me, our story is about us becoming champions and all the things together we achieved together. I’ll never forget these guys.” “As promised, we gave it everything right until the end of the final race but this season’s Formula E was really closely contested once again,” analysed Thomas Chevaucher, Director of DS Performance and DS TECHEETAH Team Principal. “Thanks to a huge amount of work from the entire team and the performance of our DS E-TENSE FE21s, we still managed to finish on the podium in the Teams’ standings. We claimed an impressive seven podium finishes throughout the year, ensuring DS remained one of the leading teams in the championship and I'm very proud of that. We now look forward to season 9, where we’ll be aiming for more race wins and titles!” Next season sees the start of the so-called Gen3 era, with the introduction of even more powerful, faster single-seaters. The new race cars will make their first appearance during pre-season testing in December.
Thanks to a solid final weekend, DS TECHEETAH secured third place in the teams’ championship, like last season. Jean-Eric Vergne, having spent much of the season in contention for the title, ended up fourth overall, whilst Antonio Felix Da Costa finished in eighth place in what was a very fiercely contested drivers’ championship.
