Nissan e.dams concludes successful pre-season test in Valencia

VALENCIA, Spain – The Nissan e.dams Formula E team completed the official ABB FIA Formula E World Championship pre-season test today, marking the start of its fourth campaign in the all-electric series. The new team driver Maximilian Guenther joined Formula E veteran Sebastien Buemi and the team for three days of testing at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia, Spain.  

Buemi and Guenther, racing in the #23 Nissan Ariya and the #22 Nissan Leaf race cars respectively, completed more than 350 laps between them and gathered significant amounts of data to further develop the Nissan e.dams race machines. Running different simulations and exploring all new opportunities across the five test sessions, the team now looks to make the final preparations and development work to the race cars ahead of the start of the FIA Formula E World Championship Season 8 in Diriyah on 28 and 29 January 2022.

The test also marks the debut of the striking new Nissan e.dams livery – an evolution of its recognizable Japanese kimono-themed design, which was first unveiled last week. The livery's new prominent bright red highlights and design flourish on the nosecone further assert the team's mission to demonstrate the excitement and performance of its EV technology.

"It has been a great week here in Valencia, and we've accomplished what we set out to do," said Tommaso Volpe, Nissan global motorsports director. "Our main objective for this pre-season test was to validate the changes we applied to the energy management software and other control systems in the car during the off season. We now have quite a few laps under our belt, and we will be busy analysing the data and further developing our race cars ahead of the start of the season in January. In addition, we were also eager to see our new driver, Maximilian, out on track and make sure he feels confident in the car, which happened very quickly. So, overall, we're heading in the right direction, and I am pleased with the results we've achieved so far.

"Our ambition for Season 8 is to confirm that Nissan is a serious contender in the championship, and also to keep using Formula E as the perfect platform to promote Nissan's expertise in electrification and our strong commitment to sustainability."

Nissan e.dams co-team principals Gregory and Olivier Driot, also commented: "The team had a really productive week in Valencia for Season 8 testing. Our key goals were to implement Maximilian into the team and get him up to speed on our systems and how we operate, which we did. We also tested our software updates, which are important as the homologated powertrain remains the same as last season. Both cars ran smoothly and without issues all week, so this is a very good platform to build on. Lastly, we had a chance to trial the new qualifying and race formats on Monday and Tuesday respectively, so we know what to expect at the first round. It's not long until the season starts so we're excited to see the cars back on track in Saudi Arabia in January."

Nissan races in this all-electric world championship 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 its operations and the life cycle of its products by 2050, Nissan intends to electrify all-new Nissan vehicle offerings by the early 2030s in key markets. Nissan aims to bring its expertise in transferring knowledge and technology between the racetrack and road for better electric vehicles for customers.

Partner Quote:

Shell

"It has been exciting to see the Nissan e.dams race cars on track at pre-season testing this week," said István Kapitány, Executive Vice President for Mobility at Shell. "We are looking forward to embarking on another season together. Our partnership demonstrates our long-term commitment to the sport, and to each other. We will work closely together into the exciting Gen3 era, driving technical developments and enhancing performance with our cutting-edge, high-performance E-fluids for use on track. Nissan shares our ambitions to deliver technological innovations from the racetrack to EV customers everywhere, and that is showcased in our ongoing partnership. I am excited to see what we can achieve together in 2022 and beyond." 

Driver Quotes:

Sebastien Buemi

"We had a good three-day test with no reliability issues. We tried to stick to our planned program, focusing on race simulation and not so much on pure lap time, so I think we have more potential than we showed. The track isn't ideal for Formula E cars, but we still collected plenty of data to allow us to prepare the best we can for the first race in Diriyah.

"I'm confident we can have a good start to the season - I can't wait to get there and see what happens with the new qualifying and race formats. We experimented with them in Valencia and it was pretty interesting, so I'm very excited to get going with Season 8."

Maximilian Guenther

"I'm really pleased with my first days with the team, and my first time in the car. I immediately had a good feeling on track. We tried a lot of things and collected plenty of data, completing all the items we had set in our programme.

"I'm looking forward to the start of the season. I'm feeling comfortable in the team, and in the following days and weeks we'll analyse our data to put everything together for the season opener in Diriyah."

Contact

Maria C. De Juana
Global motorsport and sponsorship communications lead
Phone: +33-6 17 36 37 61
mdejuana@nissan-europe.com

Sophie Rowlatt
Global motorsports press officer
Phone: +44 7392 190 706
srowlatt@prismteam.com