NISSAN AND JAGUAR CONFIRM FORMULA E DRIVERS

Nissan announces Formula E driver line-up – Photo: Supplied

Both Nissan and Jaguar have confirmed their driver line-ups to for the 2018/19 Formula E championship.

Nissan’s new factory effort in the all-electric championship with e.dams will be spearheaded by former Formula 1 driver Sebastien Buemi who continues with the squad in its new guise. While the team will add Formula 2 graduate Alex Albon.

Buemi’s past accomplishments on the track include taking the 2015/2016 driver’s championship and setting series records including most wins, most pole positions, most fastest laps, most consecutive wins, most wins in a season, most consecutive point-scoring finishes, most laps led and most races led.

“Season five will be a whole new beginning for me in many ways,” said Buemi.

“There’s so much that’s new – the cars, the race format, the venues. I look forward to continuing to work with e.dams and bringing the excitement of Nissan’s world-leading electric vehicle technology to motorsports fans all over the globe.”

Albon, 22, will make his Formula E debut with Nissan after impressive performances in the international junior single-seater categories. He finished second in the 2016 GP3 series and is currently third in points in this year’s FIA Formula 2 championship, with three wins.

“The level of competition in the series is intense, and I’m looking forward to testing myself against some of the best drivers in the world,” said Albon.

“Electric street racing will be a new challenge for me, but working with Sebastien as my teammate will be a huge help, as he has set the benchmark for performance in the series.”

Jaguar’s new I-Type 3 – Photo: Supplied

Meanwhile, Jaguar has confirmed it will unchanged driver line-up with Kiwi driver Mitch Evans and Nelson Piquet Jr.

The British manufacturer made the announcement while launching its new Generation 2 car the Jaguar I-TYPE 3 for the next Formula E season.

“Panasonic Jaguar Racing have made great progress during our short time in Formula E.” said James Barclay, Team Director Panasonic Jaguar Racing.

“We expect that the introduction of the new Generation 2 Formula E racecar and revised sporting regulations will result in a very close season of racing.”

“It effectively means that all teams started from the same point and at the same time. We believe we are the first team to develop our powertrain entirely in-house, this gives us ultimate control in terms of design and development and hope this will put us at a competitive advantage.”

“The technology is moving at an incredibly fast rate, and the new Generation 2 car will be an important test bed to help develop and drive performance of our future battery electric vehicles.”

“It’s fantastic to have Nelson and Mitch on board again and ensure consistency in our driver line-up. The combined knowledge, experience and speed of both drivers will help us achieve our goal to be in the points in every race and fighting for podiums.”

The 2018/19 Formula E season commences December 16th in Saudi Arabia.

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