In Berlin, we’ve caught up on track with Sacha Fenestraz from Nissan, and asked the rookie about his experience in Formula E after the first six rounds of the season.
Credit: Nissan Formula E Media Kit
Sara Habets: You’ve got your first taste of Formula E in Seoul with the Gen2 car, now you’re back in the pits as a full time driver for Nissan. How does your initial experience in FE compare to the one from today?
Sacha Fenestraz: It’s very different. The the car itself, the grip, we are driving with Hankook tyres now compared to Michelin before. But I will say that’s the main change, the car itself is more or less the same to drive. It’s still a lot, you know, you’re fighting a lot the car, constantly. The energy management side of things is quite different compared to before too. We have the front regen now, not only the rear as we had before in Gen2, so all of the race energy management is very different to what we experienced before.
The car itself to drive, I will say, is very similar. It’s just the tire that made a big difference for everybody. In terms of pure performance grip it’s really different to what we had initially. Before (Gen2) you were fighting a lot the car, now you are doing it, but even more, let’s say. It makes it very tricky but we are all in the same boat. We are all in the same cars, apart from the power train. So, we try to get used to it.
Habets: You’ve shown some really strong performance so far this season – getting into duels, scoring a pole position, how do you reflect on your season so far?
Fenestraz: It’s a bit of a surprise how it’s going so far this season! I was definitely not expecting a pole position, I wasn’t really expecting to get a few times into the duels. We’ve had some technical issues along the way, so let’s say we had a lot of good opportunities to go through duels. But I’m a little bit surprised, of course, positively surprised, because of course, it’s my first season, it’s one of the most difficult championships in the world with F1 in terms of pure level of drivers. The good thing for me of entering Formula E this year is the new car and also a lot of new tracks, which is, you know, let’s say easier in a way for me because it puts everybody out the same level at the same level.
It is so far, so good. I’m very happy with how we started. I’ve been a bit on the unlucky side with many things: a contact in Cape Town, on the last lap. What happened in São Paulo with the accident in front of me in India, where we could have had a podium. So, you know, there was good opportunities, but a bit of bad luck.
Hopefully we can achieve something good from now to the end of the season, we’ll see. But now, we come to track that everybody knows, and I don’t, so we’ll see where we are compared to the rest.
Habets: You’ve done far share of racing in the junior categories, so how does the preparation for a race weekend in Formula E compared to other racing series?
Fenestraz: I will definitely say it is quite different, especially how you prepare a race weekend.
You do a lot of simulator work, which you do sometimes in junior categories, but not to the same extend, considering it’s a world championship. I am racing for a factory team luckily, so there is a lot of people involved. Maybe over 30 or 40 or 50 people involved for only two cars in the garage.
You have a lot of good pressure. I say pressure, but it’s not bad – you have a whole team of people behind you, supporting you, trying to improve the car by listening what you say. So in terms of professionalism, it changes a lot compared to what I’ve had in the past. When we do debriefs after the session, you have, as I said, maybe 30 people listening only to you, to what you have to say. There is a bit of pressure of like, saying the correct things and etc. But it is very different to what I experienced in the previous categories, but I enjoy it a lot, to be honest.
Habets: Toughest challenge in Formula E so far?
Fenestraz: I would say the race – the energy management side of things. I knew it was going to be hard, but it’s especially with the new car and because it’s very new for everybody still. That’s the thing that surprised me the most is the energy management side of things.
I still need to learn a lot of it because it’s not like Gen2, where we had data and they (the team) can tell me: okay, you have to do this, you have to do that. Everything is different. Right now, they’re not capable yet to tell you, you have to do this because it’s all new.
Habets: What are your thoughts so far on the all-electric championship?
Fenestraz: Oh, it’s great! I’m enjoying it a lot. The level of drivers is extremely strong. I mean, we see in the qualifying how tight it is – we saw that in São Paulo. It’s extremely tight and I enjoyed it a lot.
It’s the best championships I’ve raced in so far. The race control, they listen a lot to what the drivers have to say, when we want to change things or when things don’t go as planned.
In terms of pure, healthy relationship with the drivers we communicate a lot. It’s good fun – it’s competitive on track but out of the track it’s a good environment. So I’m enjoying a lot of all of that.
Habets: A bit of a random question from me – are you also one of those drivers that is very interested on the whole sustainability aspect, or you don’t care too much about that?
Fenestraz: This is one of the best categories in the world and that’s why I want to drive for it. But also, for me, I’m relatively young – I see this category, electric cars and etc, as the future. Of course also as being young, I think the sustainability side of things kind of interests me, because we all know what is going on in the world right now. Racing, having an impact in a certain way, it’s great. You know, maybe people my age don’t really realize these things yet, but this sustainability side of things interest me a lot. I care about the world.
