DIRIYAH, Saudi Arabia — Sacha Fenestraz finished seventh in Diriyah to earn Nissan Formula E Team’s first points of the season in Round 3 of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
After a challenging Friday, the Franco-Argentine driver qualified 12th for the second race of the event and demonstrated exceptional speed to advance through the field and earn the team’s first points.
In the opening race of the nighttime doubleheader, Frenchman Norman Nato also demonstrated his ability by advancing four spots to finish 12th, just outside the scoring positions. He repeated the performance on Saturday and advanced four positions.
Tommaso Volpe, general director of the Nissan Formula E Team, expressed mixed feelings about the double-header. “We arrived to Diriyah with some new procedures that performed quite well, and we’re advancing in every race. This weekend’s qualifying was a touch unsatisfying, as we made a few errors, but the race pace was excellent for both drivers, and they were able to advance. We are thrilled for Sacha and his first finish in the points today; he ran a fantastic race, but we know we can do better. The fact that we had a solid strategy and a strong sense of teamwork bodes well for the remainder of the season. The championship is lengthy, so we must now concentrate on the specifics and continue to make progress.
“We were ecstatic to see our customer team McLaren achieve their first pole position and podium finish in the sport, demonstrating the speed of the Nissan e-4ORCE 04,” Congratulations to them, and we will continue to work diligently over the next two weeks in preparation for India. To realize our full potential, we still have more work to do, but we are on the right track.”
Maserati MSG Racing recovers after a difficult opening race in Diriyah.
“I’m thrilled with today’s outcome, earning my first Formula E points for the team. We should have performed better in qualifying, but we should be pleased with our improvement and what we learned over the course of the weekend. We have good speed, especially in races, but we have plenty to learn. Due to the tight proximity of the field, a single error in qualifying can be quite expensive, but this weekend was a significant improvement over Mexico. We hope to continue this trend in India and score additional points on their brand-new track.”
“The weekend was satisfactory; there are a number of positives to take away, and we are aware of the areas in which we must continue to work hard for the upcoming races. We must gain a better understanding of the tires during qualifying to reach our full potential, since the race pace has been competitive. It’s still early in the season, so we expected to have room for improvement. The competition is so close that a tenth of a second might signify a great deal in qualifying. If we had started in a few positions higher, I believe we would have had an excellent opportunity to finish in the top ten. I’m thrilled for Sacha and the team’s first points of the season, but we must now focus on India and improve our performance there.”
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