Nissan Formula E Team Principal Tommaso Volpe is not surprised by the very fast pace championship leader Oliver Rowland has been displaying in Season 11.
A strong Gen3Evo debut
The Italian has discussed exclusively with Pit Debrief the exciting year the Japanese team is experiencing, with consistent podium finishes and impressive performances from both drivers.
Nissan Formula E ‘s Volpe admitted 2024-2025 has been the best season of his five years long career with the team so far.
“Well for sure it’s my favourite season so far, it must be. I think our performance was amazing. We knew we would have been strong this season but honestly the gap that Oliver put versus the second driver in the ranking is not something we were planning.”
Still not satisfied
However, he is not completely satisfied with his year. In fact, he believes teammate Norman Nato had the potential to achieve more.
“If I need to to give a rate it’s probably nine out of ten because what we are missing is a strong performance also from the other side of the garage because with the package we have, with the team we have, we could have actually had an even better performance but motorsport is like this, you cannot have everything.”
Volpe was not anticipating the cohesive performances displayed by the team. Another element which surprised him was the incredibly high level of racing displayed by the championship leader throughout the entire season.
“The consistency because apart from the race in Miami and maybe some indecisions in Shanghai, I think we had a very strong consistency in Brazil of course was not this fault because we had a technical issue.”
“ Even in Jakarta I was more on the team management of Quali and the race, so I think the consistency of his performance is what impressed this season.”
A new driver for the Berlin E-Prix
For the upcoming Berlin E-Prix double header Sergio Sette Camara will team up alongside Rowland, as Nato will be focusing on his WEC driving duties. Nissan Formula E Team Principal Volpe commented on the driver swap, which will see the Brazilian drive for the Japanese team for the first time.
“Sergio obviously has a strong experience so we took him also because of this and he’s a great guy, a strong driver and so we really hope that he will score points in both races.Having said that it’s not easy, it wouldn’t be easy for anyone because the car is different this year.”
“Not only is it different for him because he was driving for Nissan but it’s different because we apply different technologies and so it’s not going to be easy for him, it would be difficult for anyone so let’s hope that also with a little bit of luck he can score points.”
Volpe concluded, wishing only the best to his talent.
