With Sébastien Buemi leaving for Envision, Nissan is still looking for a teammate for Maximilian Günther and treats Norman Nato and Sacha Fenestraz as options
Nissan already knows it will lose Sébastien Buemi after the end of the current Formula E season - the Swiss driver will move to Envision, replacing Robin Frijns as Nick Cassidy's partner - and is working to secure Maximilian Günther's duo for the debut of the Gen3 cars next year. And according to the English portal The Race, Sacha Fenestraz and Norman Nato are the main candidates.
However, the team has not yet made a deal to secure a driver, which keeps the options open until Nissan decides who Günther's partner will be. Besides Fenestraz and Nato, Jann Mardenborough and Stephane Sarrazin still have ties with the Japanese team - they have also tested the new Gen3 car - and are not ruled out.
The Franco-Argentinean Fenestraz, who has the same career managers as Andretti's Jake Dennis, has also participated in tests in the category - but with the Jaguar car. Moreover, Sacha has experienced the category car in testing after the 2020 Marrakech eP, which makes his work well recognized by the engineering team.
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Fenestraz's situation is even simpler than Nato's, as the French-Argentinean competes only in Super Formula and Super GT in 2022, with no connection to another team - like Nyck de Vries, for example, who aims to participate in the WEC 2023 for Toyota, for which he is a reserve driver. Thus, he would have a freer path to participate in Formula E without running the risk of clashing dates with some other competition.
Norman Nato, who said goodbye to Formula E by taking his first and only victory in the category, in race 2 of the 2020/2021 eP Berlin, has a slightly more complicated situation. As a reserve driver for Jaguar this season, the Frenchman is seriously considering a starting position at Nissan next year - but he needs to balance his participation in the category with other commitments in his career.
The driver will compete in the World Endurance Championship in 2021 for WRT and also competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, when he placed 15th among the LMP2 cars together with Rui Andrade and Ferdinand Habsburg. Even with the intention of competing in Formula E, Nato admits that his interest in endurance racing is strong.
"I am definitely looking and in talks with some teams, as I am also doing in WEC and IMSA," Nato admitted to The Race in Marrakech. "I still have to see what I have on the table and what is best for my future, because it is great to spend time with Jaguar, but it is frustrating not to be driving. I have discussed with both [Formula E and WEC], and I would say I will need to make a decision next month," said the Frenchman.
In contrast to some drivers who compete in Formula E and split with endurance racing, such as António Félix da Costa - LMP2 leader at Le Mans - Nyck de Vries, Sébastien Buemi, Robin Frijns, among others, Nato prefers to opt for one category and follow only with it, due to the great possibility that some dates clash and the driver needs to choose one race or another.
"It's a tough decision, because I think doing both is a mistake," he opined. "I know some drivers would do it, but they will soon realize that there are clashes in the championships, so it will be up to them to manage - and good luck with that. Of course, I would like to do both. But there is a new car in Formula E, a new car in WEC, lots of testing to do, lots of focus, lots of work in the simulator," he argued.