Vergne encouraged by early pace

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Jean-Eric Vergne is pleased with the progress being made by the new Techeetah team, having set a new Donington Park lap record during private testing, but remains coy on where they stand in the pecking order.

[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]”I feel extremely motivated and happy to be in such a good car.”
Jean-Eric Vergne[/pullquote]

With Lucas di Grassi setting the lap record this time last year Vergne, Sebastien Buemi and Felix Rosenqvist have all taken turns holding the honour, but ultimately Vergne trumped them all.

Despite regularly appearing at the top of the timesheets, the Frenchman isn’t getting carried away and believes the lap record could come down even further, but did admit to being encouraged by the potential of his new team.

“It’s only private testing, but I believe we will go even quicker!” predicted Vergne. “It’s nothing special, there are no points for this, it just proves that we have a good car and it’s really motivating for the whole team.

“I think it’s better for the team than myself, that all of the mechanics and the engineers know that we have a car to win. It’s motivates them and I can push them harder now.

“Of course I’m encouraged by the pace of the new car from Techeetah. We have a good powertrain from Renault and I feel extremely motivated and happy to be in such a good car.”

Vergne acknowledged the help of the powertrains supplied to the team by Renault e.dams and while he expects a close battle, the Techeetah driver believes they will be difficult to beat over the season.

“Last year Renault had the best powertrain and this year is an evolution of that. It’s of course a really big help from the team, but everyone else has made improvements as we have seen in Donington. It’s not going to be easy, it’s going to be really tough.

“Renault e.dams is a strong team and is going to be our main competitor and the team to look at as they have the same powertrain, so we have a lot to learn from them.

“We don’t expect to beat them straight away as they are an established and successful team, so if we can get as close to them as possible that would be really encouraging.”

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Images courtesy of Rajan Jangda

[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]