Behind Season 11 Formula E With Nissan

Forbes

15 hours ago

Formula E popularity is surging. Season 10 saw a 23% increase in fans, reaching circa 374 million, while Season 11 is expected to surpass 500 million, and for good reason. It's an intense and unpredictable sport; the cars are incredibly quick, and various elements, like Attack Mode, add to its strategy.
11 teams and 22 highly-skilled drivers battled through 17 races over 11 locations in the 2024/2025 Season 11 Formula E. But Nissan's Oliver Rolland secured the Formula E World Champion title after a tough fight in Berlin against TAG Heuer Porsche's Pascal Wehrlein.
Behind The Nissan Formula E Race Car
The latest GEN3 Evo cars, used to tackle Season 11, must regenerate as much power as possible to stay in the race, which is why they feature regenerative braking.
This system combines 350kW of rear regeneration with 250kW of front regeneration, resulting in 600kW, meaning a Formula E car can recover up to 50% of its energy when racing. In perspective, Nissan claims that the energy recuperated through an entire race is enough to power a three-bedroom house for three days.
The cars weigh around 862kg, which includes the driver and a 47kWh battery, and produce up to 350kW (470 bhp), meaning a whopping 545 bhp per tonne while in Attack Mode.
This allows them to accelerate from 0-to-62 mph in 1.82 seconds when using E-4ORCE all-wheel drive, making it 30% faster than a current F1 car and 36% faster than the previous GEN3 car, before barrelling onto a 200 mph top speed. The default power output is 300kW.
One Nissan representative said: 'When the team was launch testing before Season 11 started, the acceleration was actually hurting the drivers' necks because it was so aggressive.'
While the cars boast all-wheel drive, it can only be used in three scenarios. Firstly, during the Duals qualifying, then at the beginning of the race up to 100kph, and finally, during Attack Mode.
Attack Mode is a strategic element where the cars gain an additional 50kW of power during a race, but only if the drivers hit certain zones on the track, often found outside the racing line. Each driver must take Attack Mode twice during a race. When engaged, it sends more power to the front axle and LED strips on the car light up magenta when the car is in full 350kW Attack Mode.
Likewise, Attack Mode must be used for eight minutes, but drivers can choose when to deploy it. For example, this can be four minutes early and four minutes late, or a short activation of two minutes followed by six minutes later in the race.
Nissan's hop to Formula E started six seasons ago with its 'road-to-track' approach. Having built 500,000 Leafs, Nissan used its expertise to develop its Formula E powertrain.
This said, Nissan has now flipped its road-to-track approach as it progresses its Formula E technology for future electric cars, known as its 'Test bed for innovation'. And because of the powertrain's development, the engineers on the Formula E team can now feed data back to the road car programme in Nissan's Japan headquarters.
Behind The Nissan Formula E Team
Nissan's Formula E team consists of two drivers, Norman Nato and Oliver Rowland, a reserve and simulator driver, Sérgio Sette Câmara, a rookie driver, Abbi Pulling, and team principal, Tommaso Volpe.
When asked to describe how driving a Formula E car feels, Abbi Pulling replied: 'The acceleration is insane. It's a weird feeling, because you always expect the delay that a normal racing car would give, but there is none! The feeling of not having gears is odd; there's so much more to comprehend in this car, and you're essentially driving three different cars all in one, taking regen and such into consideration'.
Tommaso Volpe began his automotive career as corporate marketing manager with Ferrari in 2008. He then joined Lotus in 2009 as head of marketing, overseeing not only the road cars but also Lotus's F1 sponsorship management. Volpe then joined Nissan in April 2020.
'Only six manufacturers exist in this sport, so sometimes other teams buy from the manufacturers. We have our own car, but McLaren also uses a Nissan car. McLaren and Nissan obviously compete for the Team and Manufacturer championships. This aside, if Nissan wins the Formula E Manufacturer championship, it means that Nissan makes the best Formula E car!" says Volpe.
When asked how the drivers build physical and mental resilience towards Formula E racing, Volpe replied: 'The drivers have mostly already gone through career growth. They almost arrive with this skill, having come from carting. So we don't do much to teach the drivers, but helping them focus on the next race often helps. Regardless of the outcome, positive or negative, we always focus on the positive as it can negatively alter future results.'
Nissan has confirmed that Rowland and Nato will return for the 2025/26 Formula E. Volpe added: 'Following a very successful season, we've decided to maintain our driver line-up for Season 12. We're keen to consolidate our operations as we look to further improve on the work carried out both on and off-track since we took full control of our operations in the sport. I am sure that the stability and consistency that we've built with both Oli and Norman will help us continue our remarkable progression and fight for all three championships again next season.'