Nissan will start the upcoming Formula E season with a new driver duo. The current drivers Maximilian Günther and Sebastien Buemi will be replaced by Norman Nato and Sacha Fenestraz.
Norman Nato from France was already a regular driver in Formula E (with one race win). In the past season, he was active as a substitute driver for Jaguar and substituted for Sam Bird at the season finale in Seoul when he was injured. Nato’s new driving partner, the Franco-Argentine Sascha Fenestraz, is more or less a newcomer. Fenestraz has so far only driven the last race of the season in South Korea at Penske-Dragon for Antonio Giovinazzi, who also suffered a slight injury in the first Seoul race.
“With Norman and Sacha, we have found two strong drivers to realise our vision,” says team boss Tommaso Volpe. “I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Sebastien Buemi and Maximilian Günther. For their hard work and for their commitment last season, which was challenging but also important for us. Seb in particular has played a big part in the team’s history, having been with e.dams for eight years, four of them with Nissan.” In the “Gen3” era of the all-electric racing series, Nissan will compete entirely under its own name from 2023 after taking over the e.dams racing team.
Season 8 was very difficult for Nissan. Former champion Buemi and race winner Günther (in his BMW days) could only score 36 points, which put the team in third last place. All in all, Nissan could not keep up with the other manufacturers and even had to admit defeat to teams like Andretti and Envision Virgin, which still use the old customer drives from BMW and Audi, although the manufacturers have already withdrawn.
It is not yet confirmed whether Buemi and Günther will remain in Formula E next season. Buemi, however, is strongly linked with the second spot at Envision Virgin alongside Nick Cassidy – Envision Virgin is switching to Jaguar powertrains for the Gen3 race cars.
motorsport.com, motorsport-magazin.com, (in German)
Keyword: Nissan starts Formula E with new driver duo