Mark Preston has praised the performance of his Techeetah team after they narrowly lost out on winning the teams’ championship to Audi Sport Abt Schaeffler.
The Chinese team went into the title decider in New York with a comfortable margin at the top of the standings, but a one-two for Audi in the first race brought them right back into contention.
It still looked like Techeetah would be able to hold on after both drivers made strong starts in the second race, however when replays revealed that Andre Lotterer had jumped the start the inevitable penalty dropped him to the back of the pack.
It meant that despite Jean-Eric Vergne’s victory the second and third place finish for Audi was enough for them to take the title from Techeetah, something that Preston said would be hurting his team for some time to come.
“What can I say. This has been a wonderful season,” he said afterwards. “Against all the odds, we have built a team that is capable of taking on the best manufacturers in the championship and compete right to the very end.
“To miss out on the Team Championship will hurt for a little while, but takes nothing away from what we achieved and from winning the Drivers’ Championship.
“To do the double would have been the icing on the cake but nevertheless this gives us more fire in our belly in our preparation for next season.”
Lotterer also hailed the efforts of the team, saying they should be proud of what they’ve done.
“It has been an incredible season for us. The whole team must be extremely proud of everything we achieved. The amount of work that goes into the team behind the scenes and the level of preparation is amazing.
“While today could have gone better, I accept the decision of the stewards and it is a shame to miss out on winning the Team Championship by such a small margin. Even so, this makes us hungrier for more.”
