Team: Dragon
Drivers: Jerome D’Ambrosio and Loic Duval
Team Principal: Jay Penske
2014/15 Championship: 2nd – 171 points
Dragon Racing were one of the most competitive teams in the first season of Formula E and actually finished second in the Teams’ Championship. They were 61 points behind runaway winners e.dams Renault (who took the chequered flag first four times) but managed to pip Audi Sport ABT by six points after both drivers finished on the podium in the last race of the season. They employed three drivers for the season; Jerome D’Ambrosio, Oriol Servia and Loic Duval. Spaniard Servia drove the number six car for the first four races (two seventh-placed finishes and ninth twice) before being replaced by Duval. Servia left to race in Indy Car and took Justin Wilson’s seat in August of this year after the Brit was fatally injured at Pocono Raceway.
The Dragon Racing team was established by Jay Penske in 2007 and raced in Indy Car (also under the names of Luczo Dragon Racing and De Ferran Dragon Racing) until 2013 when they switched to the Formula E series. The Indy Car team has had some great drivers like Sebastien Bourdais and Paul Tracy but the team only achieved three podium finishes, all of them in the last season with Bourdais. Jay is the son of Roger Penske who runs the famous Team Penske that has won the Indianapolis 500 sixteen times including 2015 with Juan Pablo Montoya.
Driver Name: Jerome D’Ambrosio
Nationality: Belgian
Date of Birth: 27/12/85
Formula E Races: 11
Formula E Wins: 1
2014/15 Championship: 4th with 113 points
The pinnacle of D’Ambrosio’s career to date (outside Formula E) was a full season of Formula One with Marussia Virgin Racing in 2011. He has also been the test driver for Renault and Lotus, competing for the latter in one race in 2012 where he finished 13th at Monza for his best ever F1 result. His career started as champion of Formula Renault Belgium in 2003 before progressing through the French and Italian championships to the European series. He was the 2007 champion of the International Formula Master series which ran from 2005 to 2009. In 2014, he also raced all five events of the Blancpain Endurance Series for M-Sport Bentley in a Continental GT3.
D’Ambrosio made a record in the 2014/15 season of Formula E as the only driver to finish every race (Nicolas Prost was classified 12th in Beijing but didn’t finish the race). He finished in the points in nine of the eleven races and won the Berlin race after Lucas di Grassi was disqualified for an illegal front wing. Going into the last two races in London he was fifth in the championship behind Prost but moved up to fourth in the standings with two-second place finishes behind winners Sebastien Buemi and Sam Bird. He’s certainly a contender for the 2015/16 title in my opinion as he has already demonstrated an adaptation to the sport including management of the battery power and is in one of the best cars, certainly if last season is anything to go by.
In an interview on the FIA Formula E website, he said that the team hopes to start the season like they ended the last one.
Driver Name: Loic Duval
Nationality: France
Date of Birth: 12/06/82
Formula E Races: 7
Formula E Wins: 0
2014/15 Championship: 9th with 42 points
Duval is a versatile driver who has shown his capability in single seater racing, GT and World Endurance LMP1. His career highlight has to be the Le Mans 24 Hours win with Audi in 2013 alongside Tom Kristensen (as the legend took his record ninth win) and Allan McNish (taking his third win). If you look back through his career he is definitely what I would call a journeyman driver, often competing in two or more championships in a season. His championship wins include Formula Renault France in 2002 & 2003, Formula Nippon in 2009 and the Japanese Super GT Championship in 2010. He represented France in the A1 Grand Prix series and has been with Audi Sport Team Joest in the FIA World Endurance Championship since 2012. This year he has driven alongside Oliver Jarvis and Lucas di Grassi in the number 8 Audi hybrid but will now see di Grassi as a rival as the Brazilian races for ABT Schaeffler Audi Sport in Formula E.
After Servia left the team Duval took his seat for the last seven races of the season. He finished third on two occasions, in Berlin and London, on his way to ninth in the championship. The French driver may well surprise a few people in 2014/15 as it promises to be a very open season once more.
