until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Audi can’t be termed as favourites going into the succession of races in Berlin this week, according to team principal Allan McNish.
The manufacturer has an enviable record at the Tempelhof airfield circuit and is unbeaten there since 2017, with Daniel Abt and Lucas di Grassi having shared a victory apiece in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
Despite a relatively poor first half of the season pre-pandemic, some pundits are tipping the Audi e-tron FE06 to be a force again later this week – but McNish has told The Race that the second season of Gen2 rules has seen a natural tightening up of the order.
“We’ve got a very good history there [at Tempelhof] and it’s one that we can be proud of as, there’s been some great victories,” said McNish.
“At the same time, I learned very quickly in my karting career, that your past results don’t equal your future results. And every time you’ve got one of these streaks of success going, everybody else is working very hard to make sure that they stop that.
“It’s just simply that I think everybody’s tightened up. You know, last year, it was the first year of Gen2. We did have a very good efficiency in the powertrain and we knew the surface well.
“The regulations have sort of bunched up in the areas where you can maybe make advantages since then. So the grid has naturally tightened up and the average driver level I think, is lifted up, too, therefore the big separation gaps have not been any longer.”
McNish did say that Audi can go to Berlin knowing that “it’s been a good place for us and with an element of confidence”.
Audi had a reasonable start to the season in Riyadh with Lucas di Grassi claiming a second-place finish but subsequent rounds in Santiago, Mexico City and Marrakesh yielded meagre points for di Grassi, who places fifth in the standings, 29 points adrift of leader Antonio Felix da Costa.
Abt had contributed just eight of the teams’ net 36 points before he was let go from the team after the esports controversy in May, with reigning DTM champion Rene Rast brought in to replace him.
McNish also stated that Berlin would be “another chance for us to come back again, we are in the mix, we’re not out of it”.
Audi’s advantage at Tempelhof last season came with a clear efficiency advantage on the energy-sapping layout.
This combined with strong vehicle dynamics preparation on its in-house 7-post test rig ensured di Grassi enjoyed a relative cakewalk despite only qualifying third.
The peculiar pandemic circumstances of the current season though may have helped Audi crack the mysteries of the FE06, which has proved to be an erratic proposition so far.
“We have to just go there and try and focus on our job and make sure we take as much out of the six races as we can – but I don’t expect to be in the same sort of performance points as we maybe had in the last couple of years,” concluded McNish.
