NIO Formula E's Tom Dillmann has said that it is as if the team does not have a "weapon" to fight with in Season 5 of the ABB FIA Formula E Championship.
After 10 rounds of Formula E's present 2018/19 campaign, the Chinese NIO squad remain in last place in the Teams' Championship having only amassed six points, seven adrift of GEOX Dragon who remain as the outfit's nearest rival.
Dillmann meanwhile, remains as the only full-time driver this season yet to finish inside the top 10, taking a best finish of a pair of 12th places in the Hong Kong and Sanya rounds of the championship.
The Berlin E-Prix marked an especially difficult outing for NIO, with Dillmann completing an 18-19 result for the Oxfordshire-based team, only finishing ahead of Jose Maria Lopez.
Reflecting on the penultimate European round of the season, Dillmann aired an element of frustration, with Season 5 marking his first full-time Formula E campaign after tasting success earlier in his career with Venturi:
"It’s frustrating not only for us but also for the team, for the engineers, for the mechanics. It’s tough," the Frenchman explained to Motorsport Week.
"Everybody is working hard, everybody tried to maximise every weekend. Not only the driver but everyone in the team but it’s like we don’t have a weapon to fight with. It’s not good enough."
Looking at NIO's development over the course of Season 5, however, Dillmann was buoyant for the future, hoping that his team will find a "weapon" to compete with:
"Nobody will be giving up, everybody is pushing and everything that we’ve learned this year we can take over to next year," he added.
"In a way, I feel like we’ve pushed so much in every area because we are limited by the car. Maybe one day when we have a competitive car, in those areas we’ll be very strong. I hope soon we’ll have a good weapon!”
Formula E's fifth season will continue on June 22 in Bern, Switzerland which will mark the penultimate round of the series' present campaign.
Discussion about this post