Aaron Lloyd CollinsAs Jean-Eric Vergne won the drivers’ championship in Season 4, DS Techeetah were disappointed to miss out on the teams’ title to Audi Sport by just two points in 2017-18.
With the new Gen2 cars on the horizon and Renault due to depart, the team earned factory status after signing a deal with DS Automobiles.
Additionally, Vergne and Andre Lotterer were retained and although the team’s record wasn’t as strong as the previous season, there were still a lot of high points.
Vergne’s three wins and further two podiums were enough to make the Frenchman the first ever two-time Formula E champion.
Key stats
Wins 3
Poles 2
Fastest laps (top 10 only) 5
Teams’ Championship position 1st (222 points)
Drivers’ Championship position Jean-Eric Vergne – 1st (136 points); Andre Lotterer 8th (86 points)
Additionally, Lotterer showed more promise after claiming a dramatic pole position in Rome.
Despite taking two podiums, his maiden Formula E win continued to elude him due to a mixture of bad luck, like picking up a puncture after being hit from behind in Hong Kong, and a few errors. There was also the race-long battle in Rome with Jaguar’s Mitch Evans, where Evans came out on top after a tense 45-minte race.
Regardless, DS Techeetah were able to claim their first teams’ championship, 19 points clear of Audi Sport.
Drivers
#25 – Jean-Eric Vergne
Vergne made history in Season 5, by becoming the first driver to successfully defend the Formula E drivers’ championship.
Among a highly competitive field, the Frenchman would achieve six top-five finishes, three of which were race wins – more than any driver.
However, like many of his title contenders, Vergne also experienced his fair share of problems.
Subsequent crashes with Antonio Felix da Costa and Nelson Piquet Jr., alongside a post-race penalty in Rome, contributed towards a run of four non-points finishes in the space of five races.
Vergne’s saving grace during this rut was his first win of the season in Sanya.
Following this, Vergne produced a run of consistency that would swing the fate of the Championship in his favour including the final three European races.
#36 – Andre Lotterer
After a challenging first season in Formula E, many expected the experience of Lotterer to come through and be closer to team-mate Vergne in the championship.
Lotterer claimed his maiden pole position in dramatic fashion at the Rome E-Prix, after he locked up during Super Pole and seemingly ruining the lap.
However, the German managed to pull off an amazing recovery and beat Jaguar’s Mitch Evans by 0.360s.
Although he had to settle for second in the race, Lotterer would repeat the result in the following Paris E-Prix.
At this stage of the season, Lotterer was second in the Drivers’ standings and just one point behind Vergne.
On the other hand, a race win in the series continued to elude Lotterer, as a mix of bad luck and errors has held him.
In Hong Kong, Lotterer led in the closing stages but a collision with Envision Virgin Racing’s Sam Bird gave him a puncture and dropped him outside of the points.
Additionally, he failed to set a lap time in qualifying for Berlin, and then retired late on in the race with a battery issue, while on the cusp of scoring points.
This would kick-start a miserable run of four successive retirements to end Lotterer’s campaign.
For Season 6, Andre Lotterer will join Neel Jani at the debuting Porsche team, having entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans with the German marque in 2017.
Bethonie Waring
