2024-02-02 07:00:12
DS Automobiles was one of the first manufacturers to enter Formula E with DS Performance. With its black and gold livery, its world titles and its star drivers Jean-Eric Vergne and Stoffel Vandoorne, DS very clearly has the status of top team in the discipline. What are his goals for this season 10? What synergies with its American partner Penske? What brand strategy and what future in Formula E? Sportsmarketing met Eugenio Franzetti, director of DS Performance.
Bruno Cammalleri: You have been passionate regarding motorsport since your childhood. How was this passion born?
Eugenio Franzetti: When I was very young, I was already passionate regarding cars and motorsport. I waited until I was 18 to take my driving test and my first car was a Peugeot 205 Rallye, a magnificent car. Today I still remain a big fan of cars and motorsport. For me it is a natural passion. At the time when I lived in Milan near the famous Monza circuit, I used to go to the private F1 tests which took place during the summer in August. It was a real meeting place for enthusiasts and it remains a lasting memory for me. I also remember the first time I went to the Monza rally which took place in the large park of the autodrome of the same name. Subsequently, when I worked for Peugeot Italy as communications and competition director, Peugeot had won several national rally titles in Italy with the Peugeot 207 Super 2000 and the Peugeot 208 with Paolo Andreucci as driver. It was my first crossover experience between pure passion and professional life.
In my career, I also held the position of communications director on several occasions, locally and internationally with Peugeot, and I had the opportunity to have commercial experience (sales director of Citroën in Italy, director of the DS brand in Italy). I dabbled in commerce, marketing, communication, and when I was offered to become director of DS Performance in November 2022 I was very happy because I was further increasing my scope of professional experience while by continuing my passionate journey in motorsport.
Bruno Cammalleri: After 2 manufacturers’ titles for DS Techeetah, the competition seems increasingly fierce with first Mercedes during seasons 7 and 8, then since the start of the Gen 3 era Porsche, Jaguar and their customer teams Andretti and Envision. What are the objectives this season for DS Penske and how to fight once morest Porsche and Jaguar?
Eugenio Franzetti: For a manufacturer like DS and with our track record, the objective always remains to win! We are well prepared for this, we have experience of it. We have the talents for this, the mechanics, the engineers, the 2 drivers who are Formula E champions and our partner Penske. In Season 9 we didn’t get the results we expected and we struggled to understand Gen 3 compared to other teams and missed out on the first three races. Then for the rest of season 9 we were able to perform better over the February-May period with Jean-Eric Vergne’s victory in Hyderabad, his second place in Cape Town and Stoffel Vandoorne’s pole in Sao Paulo. The competition was even stronger for the rest of the season, we made a few mistakes like in Monaco or Portland and there were a few episodes of bad luck.
We are not the favorites for season 10, given that Gen 3 showed that there are at least 2 favorite manufacturers, Jaguar and Porsche. This season we are outsiders, but we have worked a lot during the off-season to improve the performance of our car in order to get closer to Jaguar and Porsche. The first results from season 10 confirm to us that we have worked well, we are in the right direction. All the efforts of the entire team – engineers, mechanics, drivers – have already yielded good results as DS Penske currently occupies 2nd place in the constructors’ championship. Overall, in season 10 we need to improve our overall performance from season 9, and get on the podium. This is a difficult goal because the level of Formula E has increased significantly in recent years. Especially with the leadership of Jaguar and Porsche and therefore 8 cutting-edge cars also including Envision and Andretti. There are sort of 4 Jaguars and 4 Porsches. Arriving in the middle of these 8 is already a great job, this is the reason why we are satisfied with our performances in Mexico (6th place for Vergne) and Riyadh (pole and 2nd place for Vergne, 5th place for Vandoorne ). The car is therefore efficient!
Bruno Cammalleri: DS is the only French manufacturer involved in Formula E. In its line-up the team has a double champion French driver who is Jean-Eric Vergne. But JEV is more than a driver in the Stellantis group, he is also an ambassador for DS and a Peugeot driver in Endurance…
Eugenio Franzetti: He is a member of the family! He has been a DS ambassador for 5 years and also a Peugeot driver in the WEC. JEV is a fighter who mixes pure talent, aggression and intelligence. This makes him a complete driver. He is always able to overtake, he prepares his overtakes very well but without taking too many risks for himself or for the others. He’s a great driver, a great talent who’s part of the family. Look at how he overtook Evans in Riyadh: he prepared his maneuver well, he stayed next to Evans, then in the next corner he was on the right side of the track to finish the overtake. His defense to maintain his second place at the end of the race was just as brilliant.
Bruno Cammalleri: On a technological level, DS benefits from technology transfers from Formula E. And on a marketing level, regarding your positioning as a French premium brand, how the Formula E world championship benefits DS ?
Eugenio Franzetti: Motorsport remains a magnificent platform for research/development and visibility/communication aspects. Regarding research & development issues, the DS brand strategy started in 2015 in Formula E. It must be remembered that the DS brand was born in 2014 with the idea of being an electrified brand earlier than the others. We used motorsport and the experience of Formula E to create bridges between the circuit and production cars. Thanks to Gen 2, we have developed our current range of cars and thanks to the experience gained with Gen 3 we are preparing the next generation of 100% electric cars from DS. From 2024 all new DS cars will be 100% electric. The very advanced, even extreme, experience of motorsport is then shared from the circuit to the road.
Motorsport is also a booster of communication and visibility. Our strategic choice, for a brand born in 2014 which needed a boost in image and notoriety, focused on motorsport. Which ? Electric motorsport to boost the brand image… but not only the brand image: the image of an electrified premium brand. We used the global visibility of Formula E which is now a world championship with between 330 and 340 million fans across the planet. These fans know DS Performance and DS Automobiles because we have been in Formula E since the beginning and because we have won championships. Then, you need the right brand activations in terms of marketing and communication to be able to send the right messages. What are these messages? That DS is a French premium brand having developed winning electric technology, and that our road cars have the experience acquired in motorsport. According to a Nielsen study, a person who wishes to purchase an electric car has more confidence (between 20 and 30% more) in a brand participating in the Formula E world championship.
Bruno Cammalleri: Does the future of DS still lie in Formula E?
Eugenio Franzetti: We have signed with Formula E until 2026 and therefore until the end of season 12 with Penske, i.e. the life cycle of Gen 3. We are already there all together with the FIA, Formula E, Stellantis Motorsport and all the other manufacturers working on the Gen 4 specifications.
Bruno Cammalleri: Why did you choose Penske as a partner for DS following the association with Techeetah? Can you explain to us how the existing synergies work in the partnership between DS and Penske?
Eugenio Franzetti: Our choice fell on Penske in particular for its great overall experience in motorsport and Formula E given that they have been involved since season 1. In a Formula E team there is a manufacturer with a staff of talented engineers in charge of the design of the motor, inverter and gearbox. All of these elements are made by DS Performance. These are the engineers who developed the DS Performance “power unit” and who led us to world titles with the Gen 2. This power unit is placed on the car where all the other parts are common (front engine, hull , front shock absorber, battery). The know-how and performance come from the manufacturer’s power unit, the work of our drivers and the adjustments that the team is able to make on each track. The mix of DS and Penske is super positive! There is Penske’s on-track car management experience and DS Performance’s know-how to think and design the power unit.
Bruno Cammalleri: DS Penske currently has 14 partners: one French (TotalEnergies), one Belgian (Syensqo), one Saudi (SRMG) and most of the other Americans (PMC, TTI, Mouser, Kyocera Avx, Rolling Stone). How is this panel of partners developed?
Eugenio Franzetti: Jay Penske is the owner of a very large media group which is PMC, Penske Media Corporation. This group includes very famous magazines like Rolling Stone and Billboard. Such a group with this striking force in publishing can help us increase our visibility, hence the presence of American partners who are members of the PMC galaxy. We also have a commercial organization at the level of DS Performance and at the level of Penske to recruit new sponsors. We also have among our main partners SRMG, a Saudi sponsor, and TotalEnergies, historic partner of Stellantis Motorsport. We have just signed in January 2024 with the Belgian company Syensqo, a brand born in the Solvay galaxy. We have very different partners from different parts of the world and we are of course always looking for new partners to join us.
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