After a difficult race in Berlin in Season Three, Jean-Eric Vergne has admitted that Techeetah head to the German capital this weekend facing "some unknowns" although the championship leader is determined to secure a strong result at the ninth round of the 2017/18 season.
Through the efforts of Vergne and his team-mate Andre Lotterer, Techeetah continue to lead the Teams' Championship with four races remaining in Season Four, holding a 55 point advantage over their nearest rivals of British marque DS Virgin Racing.
Last month, Techeetah narrowly missed out on what could have been a second 1-2 finish of the season in Paris, with Vergne claiming his third victory of this season while Lotterer missed out on second place on the final lap of the event, running out of usable energy and dropping back to sixth place after being involved in an accident with Sam Bird.
Despite showing strong performance on the streets of the City of Lights, Techeetah and Vergne expect a potentially difficult race at the abrasive Flughafen Tempelhof circuit, pinning its potential struggles on the lack of testing opportunities that customer teams face in Formula E.
"The Paris E-Prix was an unbelievable experience, to win your home race is just surreal," said Vergne. "Obviously, I always want to win, but if it's André on the top of the podium in Berlin, I will be just as happy for him to have that experience. But only at the next race!
"Berlin has been a tricky race for us in the past. With limited testing, we still have some unknowns going into this race.
"We're working hard to pull out all the stops to have a better E-Prix in Berlin than we did last year. At this stage in the season, it's all about keeping it clean and scoring points," he added.
Techeetah's Team Principal, Mark Preston, echoed Vergne's words, describing the team's situation as "far from ideal":
"Jean-Éric had his home race in Paris, and now it's André's turn to take to the track in front of his home crowd. Competing at your home race is always something very special and it's the first time André will drive in front of the German fans in this championship," he said.
"Tempelhof is devilishly tricky for every team, due to its abrasive surface, and we don't expect it to be different this year. The Berlin E-Prix was a struggle for us last season, and with the limited testing we have as a customer team, we haven't had the chance to test in similar conditions.
"We've got the data from last year that we can use as a starting point but it is in far from ideal conditions that we enter the next round. Nevertheless, this hasn't stopped us before and it sure won't this time."
A 10-place grid penalty for Lotterer following his Parisian collision with Bird also adds some complexity to Techeetah's Berlin E-Prix, with the scheduled post-qualifying grid demotion set to throw the German driver towards the back of the starting grid although Lotterer remains unphased and motivated in the run-up to the weekend in front oh his home fans:
"I'm very excited to race in front of the German fans for the first time in Formula E. There's nothing quite like a home race and I can't wait to meet the fans and to race in Berlin," he said.
"This will be another new track for me, and it's not an easy one, so we've been spending some long nights in the simulator and at our headquarters to do all the prep work that we can to have the best possible opportunity to succeed and put on a great show for the fans."
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