DS exits Formula E ahead of Opel's arrival
The DS Automobiles name will exit Formula E at the end of the 2025-26 season as part of parent company Stellantis's "evolution in the series".
That "evolution" is set to involve Opel joining for the start of the championship's Gen4 era with a newly acquired licence.
The focus of the DS brand is instead being switched to golf and the SailGP catamaran racing series.
DS joined Formula E by partnering with Virgin Racing for the 2015-16 season, but is best known for its dominant championship wins with the now defunct Techeetah team in the late 2010s.
It won back-to-back teams' and drivers' titles first with Jean-Eric Vergne in the 2018-19 season (he'd clinched the previous season's title with Techeetah as well before DS came onboard) and then with Antonio Felix da Costa in the COVID-affected 2019-20.
DS's star has waned competitively in the Gen3 era that started in 2023, when it switched to partnering with Penske.
Just three victories - through Vergne, at the Hyderabad E-Prix in 2023, and Maximilian Guenther, who won twice last season - have been added from 53 attempts so far.
It is nevertheless recognised as one of the most successful entities in Formula E, with 18 wins, 55 podiums and 26 pole positions in total.
Opel's arrival is not a straight swap for DS's exit; it is operator Penske that holds the licence.
That impending entry and the creation of a second factory Porsche squad means the Formula E grid is therefore set to expand to 12 teams next season, with Penske also among them.
What form that Penske entry takes, however, is unclear; there is still a chance that it creates its own technical package for the Gen4 era, though another option would be for Penske to become a Mahindra customer.
The legacy
Sam Smith
DS's decorated, decade-long stretch in Formula E is almost over but such is the vastness of Stellantis's remarkable portfolio of brands that its replacement, Opel, will soon be confirmed as plugging the gap.
But there is a very significant difference as to how that German manufacturer will operate compared to the avant-garde French brand which has won four championship titles.
That change is the way that the Opel entry will be structured and run. Gone will be the partnership model that DS enjoyed with Virgin Racing (2015-18), Techeetah (2018-22) and latterly Penske (2023-26), and instead Opel will have its own team which will have bases in Satory, France (Stellantis) and Russelsheim (Opel).
The change in model of how the team is structured has come after much debate at Stellantis on how it would allocate its brands and its renewed sporting strategy in Formula E.
There has been much change in recent times and not only in the brand distribution. Personnel-wise, too, stewardship of Stellantis's motorsport outlook has shifted from the experienced hand of Jean-Marc Finot, who retired in January, to the more technically centred Olivier Janosonnie, who spearheaded Peugeot Sport's World Endurance Championship campaign in recent years.
DS's rebirth in 2014 fitted in neatly with Formula E's birth year and by 2015 it was under the leadership of now FIA tech chief Xavier Mestelen-Pinon, and then subsequently Thoms Chevaucher, who followed his former boss to the governing body. Its success, while impressive, also petered out a little in recent years with just three wins in three seasons.
Its time as a Formula E powertrain pioneer will be remembered justifiably well because it achieved a great deal on track. Its legacy will be that it paved the way for the Stellantis Motorsport organisation to grow and strengthen, as well as navigating the clear misstep of introducing Maserati at the end of 2022, but then unleash two new brands in Citroen and Opel in close succession in readiness to take on Porsche, Jaguar and Nissan for the much-anticipated Gen4 era.
