It was a proficient testing week for many teams on the 2024-2025 Formula E grid. Nissan’s first approach with the Gen3Evo was delayed by the penalty received for violating the financial regulations, which saw them and Jaguar having to sit out the first afternoon session in Madrid.
Returning Norman Nato took a couple of sessions to readapt to the Japanese machinery following his Andretti stint, but the French driver was still positive and regards the past week as a formative experience in spite of the hardships encountered:
“The final objective of these test sessions is to ensure we have the correct set-up going into the opening round. I feel strong in the 300kW mode, which is encouraging, and we’ll continue to work on the performance once the power is turned up. Now it’s all about understanding what we learned this week and preparing for a strong event in São Paulo next month.”
A championship contender in the past season, Oliver Rowland’s week had a highlight in his leading the mock race held at the Circuit de Jarama. He also commented on another interesting innovation introduced during the trials: the new tyre compounds brought by Hankook.
“It was a valuable week for us, helping to understand the new GEN3 Evo cars as well as the new powertrain and tires. The tires are tricky to get into the correct window, but once you’re there they bring a lot more grip on one lap and should be interesting during the races. We’ve collected a lot of data throughout the sessions and now need to work on analysing this to maximize our performance in São Paulo.””
Nissan also led the first ever Formula E Women ‘s Testing session with Alpine affiliated driver and F1 Academy championship leader Abbi Pulling, who signed a time within the top 20 of the Formula E grid in his first ever FE outing and approach.
Pulling believes that with more time she could have been able to extract even more performance from her electrical challenger, but nevertheless she was satisfied and thankful as she recalled the experience:
“It was a really exciting session, and felt amazing to put what I’ve learned in the simulator into real life and to experience the thrill of driving a Nissan Formula E car. The lap times were strong which is very pleasing, I think there was more time to extract at the peak of the tire, but overall I’m happy with the performance.”
“The whole team was great, explaining everything to me and answering any questions I had, so a big thanks to them. I’m delighted to have helped Nissan Formula E Team in the build up to the new season and I hope to have another opportunity to drive the car in the future!”
