Pascal Wehrlein believes this season's "key players" in the title fight are starting to be identified, ahead of this weekend's Berlin E-Prix double-header.
The Porsche driver enters his and the team's home race with a seven-point lead in the drivers' championship over Nick Cassidy, who secured victory in one of the two Berlin races last year.
Wehrlein has never finished higher than sixth at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit, although his side are viewed as the team to beat this weekend.
Even the Porsche driver accepts that this weekend is the best chance he has ever had to win his home race, with the team's improvements in qualifying being pivotal to that.
"Yeah, certainly this year we I feel like we have a stronger package and a better understanding how to use it," Wehrlein told RacingNews365. "And I I believe that we can do better than in the past."
He continued: "I think mainly we improved our qualifying and that's giving me a lot of optimism going forwards."
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Championship 'trend'
In recent seasons, five or six drivers have broken away from the field in the championship at around the halfway point, with the same seemingly happening this year.
37 points separate Wehrlein at the top to Maximilian Günther and Jean-Eric Vergne in joint-sixth, with Berlin typically being where signs become apparent as to who is in genuine contention.
"I mean, now there's a moment where it slowly figures out who are the key players in the championship and also the key teams," explained Wehrlein.
"So yeah, it definitely feels like there's a trend nowadays. Five, six drivers, which are kind of in the mix. And yeah, every weekend, every race is counting."
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