How Berlin's FE finale unveiled DS Techeetah's new rivals

The final two races of the Formula E season were more than a couple of post-credit scenes serving to extend the running time. Antonio Felix da Costa had already, and rather comfortably, wrapped up the championship. His DS Techeetah squad had been crowned successive teams' title winners. It wasn't down to the wire as many expected or hoped; it wasn't all to play for.

But one last double-header on the extended Tempelhof Airport circuit to conclude a gruelling nine-day Berlin finale did act as a soft preview for the 2020-21 campaign. For Mercedes and Nissan e.dams offered a glimmer that if anyone can take the fight to the black-and-gold cars and make them sweat next year, then those two outfits head into the off-season in the best place to do so.

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A maiden series victory apiece for Oliver Rowland and Stoffel Vandoorne, who led a Merc 1-2 on home soil, might just provide enough momentum for both to quell the DS Techeetah dominance and bring the oft-heralded "unpredictability" back to FE.

Five of the six rounds in the German capital were won by the polesitter in fashions best described as "controlled", "consummate" or "dominant". Rowland was no exception, having benefited from a qualifying farce, which meant the four active series champions had to be granted permission by the FIA to enter the penultimate race of the season after being thrown by the 130-metre longer circuit used for the final brace of E-Prixs.

The group one contenders usually opt to do away with a preparation lap in qualifying, instead heading on track for one do-or-die flier. Sebastien Buemi, Jean-Eric Vergne, Lucas di Grassi and da Costa departed their pit garage with 100 seconds of the six-minute session remaining.

But as Maximilian Guenther reserved his right to circulate slowly in a bid to find track space behind Jaguar rival Mitch Evans on his out-lap, the four title winners were immediately stymied.

Di Grassi and da Costa even came to blows exiting the Turn 15 hairpin as they diced for track position, but it proved ineffective as all four crossed the line after the chequered flag had been waved. All four failed to set a lap time.

Audi team principal Allan McNish claimed the DS Techeetahs had been "playing around" to hold up di Grassi, but all three drivers were informed over radio as they approached the final sector that they had been released too late. In a series of fine margins where pole position is won by hundredths rather than tenths of a second, FE's leading lights missed their chance by a mile.

A maiden series victory apiece for Oliver Rowland and Stoffel Vandoorne, who led a Merc 1-2 on home soil, might just provide enough momentum for both to quell the DS Techeetah dominance

That permitted Rowland to pip Envision Virgin Audi driver Robin Frijns to pole by just 0.049s as shock contenders Neel Jani, double DTM champion Rene Rast, and last-minute stand-in Tom Blomqvist - replacing World Endurance Championship fixture-tied James Calado at Jaguar - all made their first appearance in the top-six superpole shootout.

Rowland took his grid slot in first place for the third time, adding to his Sanya and Paris efforts from last season, after reverting to his old one-lap approach to great effect. After a heavy qualifying shunt in Santiago back in January, the Briton admitted his confidence had taken a knock as heavy as his car. Since then he'd shelved the win-or-bust mentality in a bid to chase more consistent points finishes.

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But wind on seven months and he was back hustling the Nissan e.dams in the manner to which we'd become accustomed. Come the race, he kept it clean and led home by 1.9s over Frijns in a lights-to-flag affair.

Although his front-row rival considered an outside overtake at Turn 1, Frijns ducked back into formation. As he activated both of his 35kW attack mode boosts first, it meant Rowland never dropped from top spot for the duration.

No question there was some small windfall from the fact the 'big names' were starting from the back, but this comes in a season for which Nissan e.dams prepared by abandoning one of its core philosophies.

The team didn't pioneer the twin-motor powertrain configuration, but such a set-up had been shelved by the Virgin team following the 2015-16 season after difficulties for drivers Sam Bird and Vergne in mastering its rear-bias weight penalty.

Last season, Nissan e.dams brought the design back into play and it finally came good during the final four races as Sebastien Buemi scored two poles, a win in New York and a further three podiums. That was enough to propel the 2015-16 champion from a lowly 13th in the standings to finish runner-up to Vergne.

In an effort to control costs in the championships, however, the dual-motor tune was banned over the off-season, forcing Nissan e.dams not only to start from scratch, but also to head in a completely different direction.

As Nissan powertrain project manager Vincent Gaillardot explained: "Obviously, we all agreed to move to these rules for the stability of the championship. We had to refocus on a different set-up to be competitive, so we have had to work extremely hard to be ready at the beginning of the season."

Ahead of the FE paddock reconvening in Berlin after its 158-day coronavirus interlude, Audi in particular had been at pains to stress the software gains it had found. But, in truth, it was Nissan who had evidently been the busiest of the 12 teams.

Buemi added: "Last year, just to get the twin motor to work, we used all our resources in trying to work on the software - nothing on the energy management or stuff like this. When we started the season, we were way back compared to the other guys and we've caught up massively in this five-month gap we've had since Marrakech."

The 2015-16 FE champion put the improvements to work too, as he progressed from 22nd to 10th at the flag to lead home the rest of his red-faced group one qualifying colleagues. But Buemi was a touch lucky to finish the race following a bizarre retirement for da Costa, chasing in 11th place with one lap to go.

An extremely abrasive concrete surface at the airport site was employed to slow large aircraft, making the 900kg mass of a FE car of no moment's bother. It did, however, chew the all-weather Michelin tyres to shreds. So much so, a chunk flicked off da Costa's car and hit the external reset switch.

"I just had a full system shut down," he explained. "The whole thing just went completely blacked out. I lost the rear brakes so I was actually pretty lucky. I missed the corner completely because I couldn't stop the car and I missed Buemi by nothing."

"Last year, just to get the twin motor to work, we used all our resources trying to work on the software - nothing on the energy management. When we started the season, we were way back compared to the other guys" Sebastien Buemi

Given Nissan e.dams and the by-now exhausted mechanics had been spared the task of rebuilding a car, Buemi looked pretty close to being a shoo-in for the spoils in the finale when he lined up second.

Guenther, da Costa, Andre Lotterer, Vergne, Evans and Rowland all at the foot of the field after the aggressive track evolution eviscerated their chances of qualifying well, Buemi only had to take care of Vandoorne. On paper, no mean feat, but the Mercedes Silver Arrow 01 has frequently turned out stellar one-lap pace only for that to go awry in the races. If Buemi could match Rowland's efforts from the previous day, he could tie down a distant second place in the standings.

That never came to pass, though. Vandoorne not only maintained his speed for the uninterrupted 36-lap duration, but also carved out a useable energy cushion over his pursuer. So much so, once attack modes were served, Buemi was prey to the second Mercedes of Nyck de Vries.

The reigning FIA Formula 2 champion has been a close match for his team-mate this season, but repeat technical failures and procedural errors - an overcooled battery cost a maiden podium in Santiago, most notably - have done their best to disguise that. No such ailments occurring, de Vries relegated Buemi four laps from home as Vandoorne scored his first win since the 2016 Super Formula finale at Suzuka by 1.3s.

A Mercedes 1-2 has been commonplace in motorsport over the past six years - see the DTM prior to the marque's exit and, oh yes, F1. But it wasn't meant to happen so soon into an FE programme, even if the HWA Racelab warm-up act of last season had laid the foundations.

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On the one hand, the Brixworth-based High Performance Powertrains division is responsible for hybrid F1 and all-electric FE set-ups alike, so Mercedes was never going to exactly bring up the rear. And in the final race of the season, the DS Techeetahs were forced into a recovery mission once more, but it was still a mighty impressive showing against the re-energised Nissan e.dams threat.

"We always knew that [FE] was going to be a very complex series to get into," said Mercedes team principal Ian James. "We saw right from the beginning we had some strong results and then just fell away and really struggled in no man's land for quite a number of races. To bring it back at the final race has been fantastic."

Bar various driver market antics - Venturi Racing announced Felipe Massa's exit before he'd even finished his cool-down lap, and Porsche finally confirmed the poorly kept secret that Pascal Wehrlein would replace Jani - the FE racing action is on ice until a return to Chile on 16 January. Given the superiority of DS Techeetah and da Costa from Marrakech onwards, it's premature to think Nissan e.dams or Mercedes will be ready from the off to dethrone team or driver. But there are at least the makings of a closer fight.

And that's not just for the good of fans and the media, with even da Costa saying: "Obviously, it feels good for the first time to win [the title]. It obviously puts me in a much easier position. But we were talking about how much better it must feel to win it in the last race with like a one-point advantage.

"But the stress that you're going to go through to make it happen and all that, I mean that feeling must be amazing. So at least now I can say that I've won it and next year, it will be down to the line with my colleagues and I know it'll be fun."

Mercedes and Nissan e.dams have the invite to the party, and it'd be mighty good of them to attend.