23 Sep 21
14 Oct 20
Nissan e.dams confirms Sebastien Buemi and Oliver Rowland for 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship
Nissan e.dams has confirmed the retention of its driver line-up for the third consecutive season, with Sebastien Buemi and Oliver Rowland lining up once again for the Japanese marque in the 2020/21 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.
The outfit finished second in the 2019/20 Teams' Championship, having scored one victory, five podiums and a Julius Baer Pole Position, with the team building momentum as the season developed.
Buemi racked up six consecutive Super Pole qualifying appearances in Season 6, with a best result of second in Berlin, as he eventually wound up just three points shy of second-placed Stoffel Vandoorne (Mercedes-Benz EQ) in fourth in the Drivers' standings.
Rowland, meanwhile, took a breakthrough maiden victory at the penultimate race of the season to come home fifth, just a point behind his team-mate - one of the most experienced, and successful drivers in Formula E history, with the Swiss counting more wins, poles, fastest laps and points to his name than any other driver.
“Seb and Oli have done a great job for us,” said Tommaso Volpe, Nissan’s global motorsports director. “We welcome the stability and consistency that retaining them brings to the team. We look forward to building on our previous successes.
"However, winning is not our only goal in Formula E. With each race we learn more about every aspect of our high performance EVs, which then informs our road car development. Through racing, we are continuously advancing our EV expertise."
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“I’m delighted to stay on with the team," said Buemi. "We’ve achieved a lot together, and we had a great season six. Finishing second in the championship will help us maintain the momentum and the confidence we need to make us even more competitive.
"Having Oliver as my teammate again is great. We work very well together. I feel that with the experience and expertise we have across the team, we’re in a good place to pursue yet more success in Formula E.”
“Season six was great for us as a team, but also for me personally," added Rowland. "I was thrilled to take my maiden win in Formula E with Nissan e.dams, after all the hard work and practice I put in to be more consistent. To confirm my seat with Nissan e.dams for the upcoming season, together with Seb, is another piece of good news. We’ll be back stronger than ever.”
Team principals Olivier and Gregory Driot said: “It’s great that Seb and Oli will continue to race for Nissan e.dams. They’re both incredibly talented and have continuously demonstrated their strong determination and commitment. We’re excited to be able to count on their hard work and dedication to deliver even stronger results.”
Mitsunori Takaboshi will continue as the team's test and reserve driver. Former Nissan GT Academy winner Jann Mardenborough will remain as the team's official simulator driver.
Season 6
The outfit's pre-season perparations were hampered by the news that its unique twin-MGU (Motor Generator Unit) solution would be outlawed in Formula E from 2019/20. The team's innovation had taken significant time and resource to bring to fruition and going back to a conventional single-motor setup required a fundamental rethink.
"We had difficulties in getting it working and making it reliable but now we've reached the level of reliability and performance, after the season, we will have to go back, in a short period of time, to one engine," said team principal Jean-Paul Droit at the time.
Nissan grew into the campaign, though, with Rowland and Buemi notching several podiums and a race win between them at the Tempelhof Airport Circuit in Berlin, ensuring the Japanese manufacturer would end the season as one of the benchmark packages on the grid in terms of both raw pace and points-scoring form.
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