Berlin (AFP)

"Disappointed" with his third place in the Formula E championship this season, the French driver Jean-Eric Vergne, double champion out of the discipline, is however proud of his team DS Techeetah, champion constructors ahead of big names like Nissan, Mercedes, BMW, Audi, Porsche or Jaguar.

"The dominant feeling is disappointment," he told AFP on Friday, the day after the last race of the season in Berlin, where he missed out on second place in the championship by just one point, after rising from the back of the grid to 7th position.

This result is however unexpected after a year marked by bad luck: "In view of the season that I have done, I would never have thought of getting on the podium", admits the 30-year-old driver.

"There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this season," he asserts: "We win as a team and we lose as a team, the problem is that when we lose (... ) I'm kind of the tip of the iceberg, taking it all on my head, and I think there is a bit of work to be done in the team to improve some things next year. "

- "I worked on this team" -

Collectively, the association between the French manufacturer DS (the PSA brand specializing in the high-end) and the Chinese structure Techeetah once again dominated the field, with the constructors 'title for the second time in a row and the drivers' title for the Portuguese Antonio Félix Da Costa.

A lift or a frustration for Vergne? "For the moment, I'm happy, we are the best team in Formula E and I really worked for this team, he says, I was the one who went to look for DS, so I am extremely proud of the results. from this team, we have created something enormous ".

A "something" which allows this relatively small structure to hold for the time being the dragee high with the powerful German manufacturers who have invested heavily in the discipline.

For the Frenchman, this competition between large groups may also have a negative consequence in the short term: "I think that Formula E will continue to grow year after year, but that there will be fewer manufacturers in the future. When you put so much money on the table you expect results, and when, year after year, you don't win, I expect that there will be manufacturers who stop " .

- Builders "taken aback" -

To see, because the championship of 100% electric single-seater, which benefits from its image "greener" than the powerful F1, is for the moment a good laboratory of technologies, as explained Xavier Mestelan Pinon, director of DS Performance : "Governments have pushed to develop electric vehicles, policies have gone very quickly, manufacturers have been taken aback and they are now at a forced march", he testifies.

"This is the reason why so many major manufacturers are in Formula E, because" It is a technology that can be duplicated on production vehicles (...) We are a motorsport that can greatly accelerate the research and development ", assures Mestelan Pinon.

For Vergne, passed by Toro Rosso in F1 (2012-2014) and came to Formula E "by career opportunity" for lack of place in the premier class, the discipline has become the ground of his greatest exploits. He has one year of contract with DS Techeetah left. "Then? We'll see," he breathes, leaving the future open.

© 2020 AFP