MEXICO CITY, Mexico – A Nissan Formula E Team showed great potential in the opening race of the 2022/2023 edition of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, thanks to Sacha Fenestraz’s excellent qualifying at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Sacha Fenestraz had a good performance in the group qualifying stage and advanced to the duels stage, narrowly missing out on a place in the semifinals. The French-Argentine started eighth, moved up one place on the opening lap with an excellent move and moved up to sixth, demonstrating skill in his debut race for the team. In this hotly contested race, the 23-year-old maintained a good pace until an energy management system problem on the final stage of the race dropped him out of the top 10.
Norman Nato also made a positive start in car number 17, but was caught in an incident and was forced to retire on the first lap.
“It’s a bit frustrating because we could see throughout the weekend that the car was strong,” said Tommaso Volpe, general manager of Nissan Formula E and general manager of the Nissan Formula E Team. “Sacha did an amazing job in qualifying. to reach the duels and showed great potential, reaching almost the semifinals. He was running well throughout the race and setting good lap times until he had a power management issue towards the end of the race. His performance earned good points so we are obviously disappointed, but we have to move on to the next race and look to do better going forward. We know we have room for improvement, but it’s good to see we’re starting on solid ground, so we’ll look at what happened today and work towards delivering stronger results in Diriyah.”
The next Formula E Season 9 race takes place at the end of this month, with a double round in Diriyah (Saudi Arabia), on the 27th and 28th of January.
Pilots’ Comments
Sacha Fenestraz
“I was very happy to reach the duel stage in the qualifications; the competition is fierce, so we did an excellent job and almost made it to the semifinals. The race was a bit frustrating, but we definitely had the potential to score points. Towards the end we had a problem with energy management. We will try to find out what happened and correct it for the next race, but despite not scoring points the weekend was positive, we made a lot of progress between the second free practice session and qualifying and we know where we need to improve.”
Norman Nato
“This race did not go as we had hoped or hoped. In the second free practice session we were feeling confident, the pace was good, but we couldn’t get the set-up right for qualifying and that cost us a bit of time. During the race we were hit on the first lap and had to retire due to the damage. It’s frustrating because we need as much track time as possible to learn about the new car, but we’re still leaving Mexico with more data and understanding of what we need to do to improve. What happened is behind us and our focus is now on preparations for the next race in Diriyah, two weeks from now.”
About Nissan in Formula E
Nissan debuted in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship in Season 5 (2018/2019), becoming the first and only Japanese automaker to participate in the all-electric category.
In Season 7 (2020/2021), Nissan announced its long-term commitment to Formula E and the Generation 3 (Gen3) car era, which runs from Season 9 (2022/2023) until the end of Season 12 (2025/2026) in the all-electric racing category.
With Nissan’s takeover of e.dams in April 2022, the Japanese automaker has taken full control of its stake in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
In June 2022, Nissan announced that it will supply its electric powertrain technology to McLaren Racing throughout the Gen3 era of Formula E.
In Season 9 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, Norman Nato and Sacha Fenestraz will drive for the Nissan Formula E Team.
Nissan is competing in Formula E to bring the excitement and fun of zero-emission electric vehicles to a global audience. As part of its goal to achieve carbon neutrality across all operations and product lifecycles by 2050, Nissan aims to electrify all new vehicles sold by the early 2030s in all major markets. The Japanese automaker intends to use its expertise in transferring know-how and technology between the tracks and the streets, to offer even better electric vehicles to its customers.
About Formula E
Since it was created in 2020, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship has been the first global sport to be certified with a net zero carbon footprint, with investments in certified climate protection projects in all countries hosting its races to offset the emissions of each season.
All cars in the championship are electrically powered, making the series a competitive platform for testing and developing the latest electric powertrain technologies.
The biggest builders on the planet compete with each other on street circuits and Formula E promotes the adoption of sustainable mobility in urban centers, betting on combating atmospheric pollution and reducing the effects of climate change.
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