Formula E cars at the start of the 2021 race

Ready for take-off – Three things to expect in Berlin

Formula E touches down at the Tempelhof Airport circuit this weekend for rounds seven and eight of the World Championship. 

Stoffel Vanoorne took the lead in the Driver’s Championship at the last round when the all-electric series raced around the famous streets of Monaco. 

It was Vandoorne, who ended the race victorious in his Mercedes, with Mitch Evans unable to covert his Pole Position with a victory, taking the chequered flag in second. 

But as the cars take to track in Berlin, here at three things to look out for.

 

Home drivers ready for take-off

There are three German drivers on the current Formula E grid, all of which are genuine contenders for the race victory. 

Porsche duo Andre Lotterer and Pascal Weirhleni are probably the best place to challenge for top honours and are currently sitting 6th and 7th in the Driver’s Championship, with their team sixth overall. 

Maximilian Guenther also has a reasonable chance at winning either race this weekend despite being down in 17th in the standings. He has had a difficult start for the season, finishing inside the points only once but has the potential and ability to bounce back. 

He is of course already a race-winning in Berlin, after taking the win in the third race during the crazy six-race season finale when Covid-19 heavily disrupted the season, making him only the second German to win their home race after Daniel Abt in 2018. 

 

De Vries out to stop his second title chance from slipping away 

It has been a tricky start to the season for the reigning Champion, but the amount of pressure and expectation for him to retain the title might just be too much in the early stages of the season.

There have been reports in the past few days that Williams Racing in Formula One are considering giving de Vries a seat mid-way through the season. However there is no source accredited to these rumours other than social media hype at the moment, so how much of an impact this may have on de Vries is not really known. 

However, he will want to win another title and his season needs to really start now or it might just be too little too late when he finally gets into the form that won him the title last season. 

 

Race, reverse, repeat

What makes the Tempelhof Circuit so unique is that it is super flexible and can be easily modified to be run in many different layout variations. 

While we aren’t going to see 2020 levels of variations, where we saw six races take place on three different layouts, this year we get to experience two of those. 

The ‘normal’ layout or rather the one we have raced in every season apart from Season two, is being used on Saturday with the reverse layout getting used on Sunday. 

The two different track variations will keep the drivers on their toes and mean that when Sunday practice arrives, they will have to adapt to everything being the other way from the day before.

 

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