Nissan Formula E Team narrowly missed out on points in the opening round of the 2023/24 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City.
Both Oliver Rowland and Sacha Fenestraz showed promising signs in the Season 10 curtain raiser, ultimately finishing just outside the points after solid drives.
Franco-Argentine racer Fenestraz, in his second season with the team, was just a tenth away from advancing to the Duels in qualifying, and would line up ninth for the main event. Meanwhile, British driver Rowland, in his first E-Prix back with the squad after two seasons away, was caught in traffic on his final run and could only manage 20th on the grid.
In the race, both drivers showed good speed in a tightly bunched field. Rowland impressively moved through the pack, gaining the most positions of any driver during the E-Prix with nine, and finishing just a tenth outside the points-paying places. Fenestraz battled hard throughout, and was also in the hunt for the top-10 until the very end, crossing the line less than half a second behind his new teammate.
Formula E returns in a fortnight’s time for the first double header of the season in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia, on 26-27 January.
Tommaso Volpe, managing director and team principal, Nissan Formula E Team: “We prepared well for qualifying with strong showings in Free Practice. It was frustrating that Sacha missed out on the Duels by such a small amount. For Oli we made a mistake on the team side and he wasn’t able to improve his lap time. In the race, our goal was to score points and it was clear the potential was there. Oli put in a really good showing to move all the way up to P11, we went with an aggressive strategy on his side and were almost rewarded with points. For Sacha, we had problems with race pace and we need to understand what happened before the next race in Diriyah. Obviously the top-10 was our goal and it was definitely achievable, so we’re frustrated not to score this weekend, but it’s a good starting point and there’s a long season ahead of us.”
Oliver Rowland, driver, Nissan Formula E Team: “We’ve got lots of positives to take from the weekend, both Free Practice sessions were strong, although qualifying was a bit disappointing. I got held up on the second run, the car didn’t feel as good as in practice but I think we would’ve been in the mix to go through to the Duels. We had a really good recovery in the race, it was a great opportunity to get used to the car and systems. We nearly scored points and to gain nine places is very promising. We’ve got some fine tuning to do, but the base is there and we just need to piece it together in the coming events.”
Sacha Fenestraz, driver, Nissan Formula E Team: “It wasn’t our best weekend, in qualifying we were very close to the Duels, which is always our aim, but the race was difficult. Our expectations were to finish in the points, however today we didn’t have the pace to make it possible. We want to be competing at the front, so we’ll sit down and analyze what happened here to be better for Diriyah next time out.”
