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SCOTLAND’S Allan McNish has masterminded Audi’s first year in the all-electric Formula E with a podium-topping victory.

McNish whose personal career included multiple ­championship wins – three of them Le Mans victories – guided Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler to the Teams’ title in this year’s FIA Formula E Championship.

Delighted McNish said : “Winning the FIA Formula E Team’s Championship is similar to winning my first karting title, the Scottish Championships at Banff in 1982.

“Success, whether driving or as a team principal, as I am now, gives you confidence and I’m very pleased and very proud the way we all recovered from set-backs at the start of the season to claim the title.

“My biggest challenge was trying to take a step back from the driver’s view because, not surprisingly, I initially watched the races as a driver. But there’s a point where you have to take in the bigger picture.

“Your heart maybe tells you one thing and your racing instinct tells you another but the reality is as a team principal, you have to take into account the bigger Audi picture and at the end of the day my role was to deliver the championship.

“We had technical problems on Lucas Di Grassi’s car early in the season and one of the challenges was to make sure the team didn’t get frustrated when we watched others spraying the champagne.

“We were all working hard to get a solution to a difficult problem within the restrictive championship rules, which meant we went to races knowing we would most likely have a problem but no chance to fix it.

“I needed to keep everybody focused and motivated, knowing from experience it would turn around.

“I was not sure when but did know if we kept our heads down and kept working it would, and when it did, the momentum would make that one powerful force.

“It’s a big thing to come away with the team’s title because it relates to what we’ve all achieved – it’s important for everyone in the team to take credit as well for Lucas’s recovery to finish second and Daniel Abt fifth.

“I was very pleased about that, especially when we came into round five of the championship with only

12 points on the board.

“For them both and the team to come back from a 77-point deficit showed that we had a good car and still had the ‘never give up’ mentality that won us so many Le Mans 24 Hour races.

“We used the experience from our LMP1 days to help overcome our difficulties in Formula E – a good way to launch new products when you are racing and winning on track.

“e-tron arrives on to the roads very soon but we have already seen the name of e-tron winning on race tracks around the world.

“It’s now five months until the beginning of the new season in Riyadh but the reality is we have been out developing and testing since March with the season five car and and its electric motor.

“This is one of the hard parts of being a manufacturer and also a competitor because we have two jobs to do concurrently.

“We’ve got to develop for the future as well as race in the present but we’ll take a little rest now and recharge our battery, excuse the pun.

“We know that it is going to be a tough fight next year and we will come out with a very competitive car.

“The previous season is history so we have to make our mark in season five with the new car – but I’m looking forward to it is just as much as I looked forward to this past season.”