Antonio Felix da Costa may have wrapped up the Formula E drivers’ title after a DS Techeetah cakewalk in Sunday’s fourth Berlin E-Prix in five days, but there are plenty of storylines left in the 2019/20 season ahead of its conclusion.
On Wednesday August 12 the championship picks up where it left off for the final two races of the season – again at the Tempelhof venue – albeit with the third different layout in as many events.
This week the turn count at the circuit is upped from 10-12 with a more complex second sector.
With that, the other teams and drivers will be hoping to halt DS Techeetah’s dominance, but even if they can’t and all the action takes place behind da Costa and Jean-Eric Vergne, there’s still plenty to play for.
More Records to be Beaten
Several records have already been equalled or beaten by da Costa and the DS Techeetah team’s white hot Tempelhof performances, and with two races to go there’s every chance more records will topple.
Da Costa equalled Alexander Sims’ consecutive pole position record from 2018/19 and 2019/20 with three, and matched Sebastien Buemi’s record of wins in a row with three, from 2016/17. Both of those runs have now ended for da Costa.
But the DS Techeetah squad extended its record of consecutive pole positions to five last time out, and that streak is still alive. The team has become the first to take back-to-back drivers’ and teams’ titles scored in the same year – a clean sweep of all titles, if you will – with Vergne winning last season and now da Costa.
Perhaps the most chilling of all stats for DS Techeetah’s opposition its also the earliest a team has ever taken either the drivers’ or teams’ titles in a season, with the two races still to go.
Despite that bounteous haul of records and titles, DS Techeetah and da Costa can still achieve more this week.
One that would really stand out would be if Da Costa did a double on the final configuration of Tempelhof track this week. Should he do so then he would equal Buemi’s record tally of six wins in a single season (2015/16), although it would be an even more impressive feat since it would have been achieved with one fewer race on the calendar than in Buemi’s year.
The platitudes for DS Techeetah are deserved after truly flattening its opposition and remaining unbeaten in all championships within the Gen2 era that started in 2018/19.
Can anyone stop Vergne making it a DS Techeetah 1-2?
With da Costa being so far up the road in the standings – his lead is currently a whopping 76 points – the focus will be on a nip and tuck battle for the runner-up position.
Vergne is the hot favourite to claim this, and from his form after last weekend’s performance and the potency of the package beneath him, it will be a brave person to bet against the first ever 1-2 for a team in the drivers’ standings. The champion in the previous two seasons before da Costa, Vergne took pole position for both races last weekend and won one of them.
Should Vergne falter, then mathematically the next 13 drivers can catch him.
Best of the rest standings
2 Jean-Eric Vergne 80 points
3 Maximilian Guenther +11 points
=3 Lucas di Grassi +11 points
5 Sebastien Buemi +13 points
6 Mitch Evans +15 points
7 Andre Lotterer +21 points
8 Stoffel Vandoorne +23 points
9 Oliver Rowland +26 points
10 Sam Bird +28 points
11 Alexander Sims +31 points
12 Nyck de Vries +38 points
13 Robin Frijns +40 points
14 Edoardo Mortara +42 points
With an unknown track layout on which drivers have had minimal sim testing, all bets are off but perhaps last season can provide a pointer.
Buemi is more than capable of doing what he did last season, when the 2015/16 champion vaulted from seventh to second in the final two races at New York City by claiming 43 points. He also shows that most of those 13 drivers are in with a chance given that feat.
Bragging rights in the pitlane
The teams view their own championship with primary importance and the bragging rights on where you finish and how far down the pitlane you’ll be located next season are a point of team pride.
DS Techeetah has bubble wrapped the title for another year of safe storage, while Nissan e.dams has stealthily usurped BMW for a slender lead of three points for the runner-up spot.
In addition, there is intrigue over which team will finish where amid the quartet of German manufacturers. It currently reads: BMW Andretti (118, third), Mercedes (99, fourth), Audi (78, sixth) and Porsche (59, eighth).
These teams have proven similar in terms of pace but it is BMW and Mercedes that have shown form that can grasp the big points needed.
The only genuine rookie team (Mercedes had a season in all but name as HWA last term), Porsche should be right up there challenging too, but Neel Jani’s dearth of points has hurt it badly and it is probably too far adrift.
Then there is the fascinating battle of supplier and customer with Audi and Virgin, which is separated by just four points in Virgin’s favour.
The main team filed to ‘underachiever’ status currently is Jaguar, which has slid the snake after climbing the ladder and harnessed just eight points in four races.
Jaguar arrived at Berlin less than a week ago in third position and is now seventh, the same position it finished last season. The Big Cat shouldn’t slip any further but that regrouping with new signing Sam Bird next season can’t come soon enough for it now.
Venturi and Mahindra are battling closely for ninth spot and are separated by four points in Venturi’s favour.
Dragon’s two points, garnered from a fortuitous ninth after penalties were applied in Riyadh, would be a depressing return, but at no stage has it looked like adding to the tally in Berlin.
NIO333 can only hope for crumbs and that a race of outrageous attrition might stop it becoming the first ever team to not score a point during a season.
Valedictory Party?
James Calado has already vacated his Jaguar cockpit, to be replaced by Tom Blomqvist. Despite best efforts Calado struggled to bring Jaguar the points to support Evans’ usual decent haul.
His replacement next season, Bird, will be desperately hoping he can say goodbye to the Virgin team he has worked with for the last seven years.
Bird has had a mixed five days in Berlin, but podiums and wins from him can never be discounted. Should he do so, it would be a very apt way for this successful era with the tight-knit team to end.
Elsewhere, Jani will race in his final event for Porsche as Pascal Wehrlein will be announced as his replacement soon after Berlin.
The next steps of Sims, Jerome d’Ambrosio, Nico Muller, Oliver Turvey and Daniel Abt are less clear, but at least two of them are set to have their future confirmed by the end of the month.
Audition Missions
Alex Lynn, Rene Rast and Sergio Sette Camara are effectively partaking in audition drives for 2020/21 with Mahindra, Audi and Dragon respectively.
While many are assuming that Rast is a shoo-in for the Audi drive, there could be other possibilities open to Audi, but the smart money is on the double DTM champion to partner di Grassi next season.
Rast has done a solid job so far but his qualifying pace last Sunday where he started eighth hints at improvements to come.
Alex Lynn, considering he has had minimal running for Mahindra, has been the stand out ‘stand-in’ driver with two superpole appearances and a couple of points to his and the team’s name.
Sette Camara has been fast but wild on occasions but has matched, and on two occasions beaten, team-mate Muller. Depending on his Super Formula and Formula 1 reserve roles, the Red Bull-backed driver would be a decent shout for a full-time ride next season.
A cameo Surprise?
There is one final driver change of the season as Blomqvist goes direct from Jaguar’s simulator to the #51 Jaguar I-Type 4 for this week’s races.
He comes back to the paddock after a bruising part-season with Andretti in the 2017/18 campaign. Then he was forced to delay his debut for sponsor pressure reasons. When he finally got going he netted just six starts with a best finish of eighth.
He was then replaced by Stephane Sarrazin – who confirmed that it was very much the machinery rather than the driver that had a problem.
It will be fascinating to see if Blomqvist can emulate the job that Lynn achieved last term when he came in to replace Nelson Piquet Jr at Jaguar and sometimes matched Evans in points promise at very short notice.
Gloves Off
The racing itself has been good in the first four races in Berlin with the airfield track and its wide confines promoting close and competitive action.
Incidents have occurred, such as Felipe Massa’s skirmish with di Grassi and Maximilian Guenther’s rear-ending of Turvey.
But it is the propensity of some drivers to weave in braking areas in defensive desperation – not unlike in F1 where it has become a talking point in recently – that is being addressed after creeping back in.
Nyck de Vries, Lynn and Rast were all given warnings for their conduct and the matter has been addressed in the drivers’ briefings.
Most of the drivers on the grid have not raced competitively for five months so these extraordinary circumstances can be contextualised somewhat.
But with two races remaining and pretty much all drivers bar champion da Costa able to improve their rank in the final standings, a degree of mid-week dogfight conflict is expected to round out the strangest of seasons.
