Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird has rated his season so far as a three or four out of 10 ahead of this weekend’s Berlin E-Prix at the Flughafen Tempelhof Circuit
Bird, who secured victory in Santiago, has struggled in recent races, with a run of four non-points scoring finishes marking the Briton’s worst run of form in his Formula E career, with poor luck hijacking the British racer's season.
At the Monaco E-Prix two weeks ago, Bird missed out on a potential top 10 finish, picking up a puncture following contact with Jaguar Racing’s Mitch Evans.
Losing sixth place on the penultimate lap, a point-less weekend in the Principality meant that the driver dropped to 10th in the title fight after previously leading earlier this season while team-mate Robin Frijns sits in third.
"It has been a three or four out of 10 to be honest,” said Bird when talking to Motorsport Week, describing and subsequently rating his season so far.
"There’s been some promising results but then there’s been some difficult ones.
"The last four races I’ve been hit from the back which has ultimately made the season more difficult. It’s not over until the fat lady sings but I need a good result.
"I was happy with the performance [in Monaco], I felt that I moved forwards well on a circuit that is typically quite difficult to move forward,” he continued.
"I was happy and excited by that and if I can take that kind of racing form in Berlin, then hopefully we can have a strong showing."
Demonstrating an overtaking masterclass in Monaco, Bird expressed the confidence that he has in his Envision Virgin car, however, alluded to issues that the team has experienced recently:
"The car that Envision Virgin Racing give me is very strong, I’m very happy,” he added.
"There’s been reasons why we haven’t been at the front recently but we’re aiming to put them right and put all of the pieces of the jigsaw together."
Bird's Season 5 was complicated further in practice in Berlin, with the driver struggling for pace in FP1 before completing only eight laps of running in FP2 after tapping the wall, meaning that the next time that the driver will complete a lap in Berlin will be in qualifying on Saturday morning.
The Berlin E-Prix will start at 13:00 local time on May 25 while qualifying will commence at 08:45 on the same day, deciding the starting order for the tenth race of the 2018/19 season.
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