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Nissan is set to stick with Sacha Fenestraz for the third and final season of his current deal after all, but is already considering a big name acquisition in preparation for the Gen4 era that begins in 2026.
Fenestraz’s Nissan seat was seriously under threat until recently after an admittedly poor season, but a combination of Nissan loyalty and a lack of viable alternatives to replace him for 2025 ultimately led to the Japanese manufacturer not changing policy.
The Race understands that Nissan has been keeping a close eye on Antonio Felix da Costa’s complicated situation at Porsche and has also shown some interest in Stoffel Vandoorne – who has signed with Maserati – at some point as Fenestra’s season has gone from worrying to crisis.
It came to a head in Portland in June when he was outpaced by Caio Collet, the rookie replacement for teammate Oliver Rowland, despite the Brazilian not having benefited from a single on-track simulation session.
This situation occurred after Fenestraz crashed in free practice, and although he qualified and raced stronger than Collet on the second day, his final result was affected by his collision with Jake Hughes’ McLaren-Nissan.
A gruelling double weekend in London followed in which Fenestraz failed to score any points, while Rowland took his second win of the season.
The gap at the end between Rowland, who was unlikely to compete for the title for much of the season, and his isolated teammate Fenestraz was 130 points, even with Rowland absent from Portland due to illness.
Nissan has also spoken to Norman Nato’s representative, Tiago Monteiro, in London about a potential return for the current Andretti driver to the team he left this time last year.
However, despite Nato leaving on good terms, Nissan team principal Tommaso Volpe – after consulting with senior Nissan staff – is believed to have settled on continuing with Fenestra.
Part of the rationale for not making a change alongside Rowland, who has a long-term contract, is that Nissan needs a stable start to testing and development work this summer and fall with the Gen3 Evo, which will be a closed-loop design for the next two seasons.
Fenestraz is a highly sought-after development driver who was considered by his former employer Jaguar to be one of the best drivers on the simulator and in terms of technical understanding, and has been on their books beyond race drivers.
Speaking to The Race in London last month, Volpe said he had no doubt that “Sacha can be, and will be at some point, a strong Formula E driver”.
Volpe also noted that Fenestra’s 2024 issues were primarily “just in his head” and that he had “no doubt he has the skills to work on that.”
“We just need to see if he can be ready from day one next season with Nissan, because the goal next season is not to be where we are now. The goal is to fight for the championship and we need both drivers to be in good shape for that,” Volpe added.
“I really have no doubt that at some point he will be a strong driver in Formula E, the very obvious question is: is this the right time and the right team? But we will postpone those decisions until after London.”
Nissan is expected to confirm the contracts of Fenestraz and Rowland for the 2024-25 season, which starts in Sao Paulo in December, next month.
Who will Nissan target in the fourth generation?
Nissan doesn’t have the best reputation for making wise long-term driver decisions, with a kind of revolving door in its seats in recent seasons.
Once Sébastien Buemi left the team, having been with them for eight seasons, in the summer of 2022, and Maximilian Günther completed a difficult one-off campaign at the end of the second-generation era in the same year, Nissan opted to sign Fenestraz and Nato.
But when Rowland became available after parting ways with Mahindra in June 2023, Nissan decided to change tactics again by replacing Nato – despite him outscoring Fenestraz in the points and bringing the team its first podium in nearly two seasons.
While Rowland’s move paid off handsomely, Fenestraz struggled to show any signs of the pace and performance in the race that his team-mate was capable of.
This has raised doubts about his ability to perform at the highest level in Formula E, meaning the Nissan driver’s next step has been fast-tracked into the fourth generation period or possibly earlier if they are able to free a driver from an existing contract.
Da Costa will remain of continued interest to Nissan as he is understood to have another season left on his contract with Porsche, which will cover next season.
His sometimes distant relationship with some members of the Porsche senior team became well known after The Race revealed the unusual situation there earlier this year.
Da Costa is understood to want to return to the World Endurance Championship as soon as possible, and while he won’t be allowed to do so next season, at least full-time, he would want to secure a full-season deal in 2026. That’s when Nico Muller could replace da Costa at the factory team after a potential one-off season at customer team Andretti in 2025.
Nissan has been reasonably tolerant of its former drivers doing dual campaigns, with Buemi even managing to represent two Japanese giants, Nissan and Toyota, for several seasons. As such, da Costa could re-engage in a dual programme like the one he successfully used while at DS Techeetah and Jota from 2019 to 2022.
Two other names already linked to Nissan are Mitch Evans and Theo Borchard.
Evans is under contract with Jaguar until at least the end of the 2024-25 season, but it is likely to extend beyond that after an extension was announced in August.
Nissan are understood to be interested in signing Evans, who suffered another title defeat in a tense season finale in London last month.
But Jaguar values Evans highly and will protect one of its key assets fiercely, meaning Nissan’s ambition and long-term investment in Formula E may not be enough to lure Evans away.
Meanwhile, Bourchier continues his IndyCar career, after the current Formula 2 champion joined McLaren and signed a contract until the end of 2024 in May, only to be dropped by the team a month later.
The opportunities for 2025 are limited with too many drivers and not enough seats in the North American series, where the top teams already appear to be filled.
The 20-year-old has Formula E experience having been a development driver for the Spark team when testing the Gen3 design in 2022.
Boushier is believed to want to try for a full-time IndyCar drive for 2025 and build a career in the United States, although he is known to be open to other possibilities for his future.
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