Season 12’s Pre Season Testing in Valencia has just rounded off, with Nissan, team home of the reigning World Champion, having a strong debut ahead of Gen3Evo’s final year.
Confirmed driver lineup duo of Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato were able to learn much about their new challenger by completing over 200 laps each over the span of the six three hours long testing sessions.
First official outing as Formula E champion
Rowland, sporting the no. 1 during the Formula E Pre Season Testing on his Nissan car, lead the final session of the week. However, he suffered from a technical failure in the previous days, which had him cause a red flag when his day came to a halt at the chicane at the Ricardo Tomo Circuit.
He left Spain with a positive feeling going into the beginning of Season 12.
”It’s been a good few days of testing here in Valencia and I felt like we worked our way through the program nicely. We’ve learned a lot from some challenging moments and that can be a good opportunity as we sit down and analyze everything to further improve and keep up our momentum. We’ve made the most out of our time on-track and I’m confident that we’ll be competitive when we arrive in São Paulo for the opener in December.”
A new number for Nato
At the other side of the garage, Norman Nato has taken up Rowland’s 23 for the upcoming 2025-2026 season. The Frenchman too had a pleasant first approach during the Formula E Pre Season Testing, leading a morning session and completing 265 laps.
Nato highlighted the importance of maximising gains and margins in the upcoming final season of Gen3Evo machinery.
“It’s been a long and intense week but I’m happy with what we’ve achieved during the four days of testing. We’ve been trying a lot of new features and today everything seemed to go well, as I topped the morning session and Oli was fastest in the afternoon. It’s been very important to work with the new crew members and to help build team spirit ahead of what will be a busy season.”
“We’ve got some time to now analyze our performance before São Paulo and make sure we’re at the top of our game, because it’s the final year of GEN3 Evo and we know that the smallest margins will make the difference.”
A successful outing for Pulling
On the fourth day of Formula E Pre Season Testing the second edition of the Women’s Testing took place, with Abbi Pulling in attendance for Nissan.
The F1 Academy champion, who had dominated the first edition ahead of Season 11, ended her third electrical rookie experience in second place. She completed almost 89 laps, on the same mixed qualifying simulations and race pace programme her full time teammates performed in the earlier days.
The Brit went into detail about her great experience, improved by her previous outings for the Japanese team.
“I’m really pleased with the work I did today, and to set the second-quickest time in both sessions is a strong result. One of my personal targets was to break into the 1:22s, regardless of what everyone else would do, and I’m delighted that we managed to do that! I also wanted to improve my technique during race simulation in terms of energy management, which I definitely achieved.”
“ It’s a physically demanding track, but we made good progress on our previous work in terms of long runs and qualifying laps, in addition to the Pit Boost training, which will be useful for the team moving forward. I’m feeling more comfortable in the car every time I drive it and I’m enjoying it a lot – these cars are incredibly complex but a lot of fun to drive. A big thanks to the all the team for today, I had a great time and I’m looking forward to the next opportunity.”
