Tommaso Volpe, Team Principal of the Nissan Formula E Team, is expecting this weekend’s inaugural Cape Town E-Prix to be “very challenging and demanding”, with the venue hosting the fifth round of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship expected to be the fastest of the season.
Nissan head into South Africa on the back of a mixed weekend in Hyderabad, with Norman Nato having finished seventh, whilst Sacha Fenestraz finished twelfth. Fenestraz had been having an excellent weekend in India, until his race was ruined whilst running towards the front after being caught up in Sam Bird‘s incident.
Despite Fenestraz’s disappointment, the Japanese manufacturer certainly took a step in the right direction in India, with the hope being that they can further build upon their India pace. Volpe has warned his drivers, though, that with the circuit set to be so fast, “any mistake could have major consequences”.
“This new venue in Cape Town will be very challenging and demanding for both the drivers and the cars. From our work in the simulator we know it will be very fast, even faster than Hyderabad, so any mistake could have major consequences. In India we managed to put together an entire weekend very well, although we didn’t get the results we expected due some bad luck, especially with Sacha. So now the team has extra motivation to fight for points with both cars in South Africa.”