Formula E’s departing manufacturer remains its most influential

When a start-up boutique manufacturer signalled it would bow out of Formula E last month it did so as the championship’s most successful technical force – and in addition perhaps has a claim to having achieved it all with the fewest resources among its direct big-manufacturer opposition.DS Automobiles, through its sporting arm, DS Performance, has been winning big in Formula E for almost a dozen years. Its history can be told in statistics of four championship titles, 18 wins, 55 podiums and 26 pole positions, but much more fascinating is its culture and zero-to-hero status in the all-electric series’ history.In 2014, DS as a brand was relaunched and became detached from Citroen – ironically now its sister brand in Formula E, 12 years on. An avant-garde disruptor that was given a sporting platform by then owner, PSA, remarkably …