MGU: Twin units / Yasa

Transmission: Single gear

In short: Marked improvement over the first three races hints at latent performance that remains to be unlocked

Taking a similar route to NextEV TCR, DS Virgin has also opted for a twin axial motor solution. We believe the team is using motors supplied by Yasa, a British company founded by Dr Tim Woolmer following his PhD research at the University of Oxford.

Like the Chinese team, the motors in the Anglo-French car are again mounted longitudinally and again drive a simple differential without intermediate gears.

Rather than the spaceframe structure used by NextEV to support the powertrain, DS appears to be using an aluminium casing. A bellhousing around the two motors is bolted to the battery safety cell, with a separate casing around the differential.

On the electronics front, DS makes use of multiple inverters to suit the twin motors; these are wide and flat and look similar to NextEV’s solution. The units aren’t the same type, however; we have yet to identify the supplier. Additionally, we suspect that the DS car is not running the standard McLaren ECU, possibly replacing it with one supplied by Magnetti Marelli.

In the season two opener in Beijing, energy management was evidently a problem for the team. Sam Bird, usually frugal enough to pit later than most throughout season one, found himself wallowing fairly far behind his immediate competitors. However, in the battery-limited Putrajaya race, his energy levels remained in line with his rivals.

In Punta del Este, both Bird and Vergne were far quicker – something that surprised the drivers themselves (Vergne had commented before the race that the car didn’t have the pace to mix it with front runners Renault and ABT). Bird’s race ended part-way through with a reported battery issue, when a third or fourth place finish had looked likely.

The marked improvement in performance over the first three races suggests that the DS Virgin Racing hardware has a good deal of latent performance which may be fully unlocked by software, simulation and set-up improvements over the remainder of the season. While the team remains unlikely to be able to mount a credible challenge to Renault this season, we could see DS challenging consistently for podium places, which the team would expect after winning two races in the first season.