Cape Town - Everyone loves a winner and so it was in the pit lanes in the temporarily erected Cape Town e-prix circuit on Saturday February 25. Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz, who had been impressing team principal Tommaso Volpe since the season began four races before in Mexico City, had just won pole position – driving the fastest lap in Formula E’s nine-year history.
There under the sweltering Cape summer sun, Fenestraz and his team-mate Norman Nato were hard at work signing postcard sized pictures of themselves for a brand-new legion of South African fans, while drivers in the other pits sat somewhat disconsolately under umbrellas held by colleagues for the same attention.
Would the 23-year-old, the youngest driver in Formula E and a rookie to boot, make history later in the afternoon in the first ever e-prix to be held in sub-Saharan Africa? Alas it was not to be, as after thrilling the crowds for most of the 32-lap race, alternating between second and third, he crashed in the last lap.
Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa came from 11th to sensationally beat DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergen in the same last lap to clinch victory. The 2.921km street track is the fastest so far, but only 13 of the 18 drivers who started, actually finished, with five drivers crashing on the roads in a race which saw Fenestraz clock a top speed of 250.2km/h and an average lap speed of 154.987km/h.
The third-generation racing cars, which were unveiled at the start of the season in Mexico City in January, are the fastest and lightest electrical vehicles ever made, with a top speed of 322km/h and weighing 840kg, 60kg less than last year.
They are powered by two engines, a 350kW engine in the back and a 250kW engine in the front. It has a potential 600kW, but the cars race at either 300kW or 350kW. They also start the race at only 60% of battery charge because formula E is not just about going as fast as possible, it’s about going as efficiently fast as possible, said Volpe. The cars hardly use brakes, but instead use the on-board regenerative system to charge the battery.
The race itself is about the proper and most efficient use of energy, team management try to use every single bit of energy in the battery, with the aim being to win the race but end up with as little as 1% or less left in the battery.
Nissan has been involved in Formula E for the last five years, first in partnership with the E-Dam racing team and then since the start of this season, running under its own name and indeed a new cherry blossom livery, the sakura, to signify the new beginning of which its drivers: Nato and rookie Fenestraz, are also brand new, having been signed at the end of last year.
The OEM, which produced the world’s first mass-selling EV, the Leaf back in 2010, used that technology as part of its Road-to-Track concept, said Volpe, but now technology developed for the track was being filtered back to the road, especially in the form of e-4ORCE, the all-wheel drive technology developed for Formula E, that will soon be introduced in the next-generation Nissan X-Trail. e-4ORCE integrates the electric propulsion with AWD control to massively improve acceleration, cornering and braking.
“Nissan participates in Formula E to achieve three very distinct objectives: to demonstrate Nissan’s proven expertise in the Electric Vehicle (EV) field, to demonstrate to the broader public that EVs are exciting and to use the race journey as an R&D tool to the benefit of Nissan’s SUV and passenger vehicle range,” Volpe said.
For Nissan Africa managing director, Mike Whitfield, the race was a fantastic success. More exciting and more enjoyable than Formula 1 versions he had been too, but more critically, a wonderful showcase for the electrification gospel.
“This was a fantastic event and an incredible moment for us at Nissan Africa to see our drivers and our racing team perform so well on African soil, literally in front of our eyes. The cars, the technology, the team and of course the drivers are all living testimony to the importance of Nissan’s AMBITION 2030 strategy to fulfil the pioneering work we began on our electrification journey.”
The emphasis on practical implementation extends to the selection of tyres which are very similar to the tyres used on roadworthy vehicles and totally different from the slicks used in Formula 1. The net result is that Formula E cars use far less tyres throughout the process and in fact can run on two sets for the practice laps, the qualifying laps and then the race itself. The tyres are also made from recycled material too.
“When you look at our shirts, you’ll see the Shell brand, which looks strange for an EV, but Shell is also working very hard in the new energy field aiming to create the biggest recharging network in the world by 2030.
“They are also developing cleaner energy liquids like Shell e-fluids which are critical to the EV’s efficiency. You’ll see that we are also partnered with the Woolmark company, with our team clothing all containing 50% merino wool, even the boots we wear. It’s all renewable energy and sustainability.”
The next stage in the formula E caravan is Sao Paulo in Brazil on March 25. There will be big hopes placed once again on the Nissan drivers; during qualification in Cape Town the day before the race, they finished first and third fastest.
The new beginning Volpe spoke of might be starting to blossom.