Nissan is set to stick by 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 has been under serious threat until recently after a self-admitted poor season. But a combination of loyalty from Nissan and no viable alternatives to replace him for 2025 ultimately resulted in a no-change policy from the Japanese manufacturer.
The Race understands that Nissan was closely monitoring Antonio Felix da Costa's once complex situation at Porsche and also showed some interest in Stoffel Vandoorne - who has signed for Maserati - at one stage as Fenestraz's season went from concerning to crisis.
It reached a peak at Portland in June when the Franco-Argentinian was outqualified by team-mate Oliver Rowland's rookie stand-in Caio Collet despite the Brazilian having not had the benefit of a single simulator session at the track.
That situation was triggered by Fenestraz crashing in free practice and, while he qualified and raced stronger than Collet on the second day, his end result was compromised by a clash with the customer McLaren-Nissan of Jake Hughes.
Another bruising double-header weekend in London followed with no points for Fenestraz, while Rowland raced to his second victory of the season.
The eventual gap between Rowland, an unlikely title challenger for much of the season, and his forlorn team-mate Fenestraz was 130 points, even with Rowland missing Portland through illness.
Nissan also spoke to Norman Nato’s representative Tiago Monteiro at London about a possible return for the current Andretti driver to the squad that he left this time last year.
However, despite Nato having left on good terms, Nissan team principal Tommaso Volpe - in consultation with senior Nissan personnel - is believed to have settled on continuing with Fenestraz.
Part of the rationale for not making a change alongside Rowland, who has a long-term contract, is that Nissan needs a stable start for its test and development work this summer and autumn with the Gen3 Evo car, which will be a locked-in homologated design for the next two seasons.
Fenestraz is a highly coveted development driver with previous employer Jaguar regarding him as one of the best drivers on the simulator and for technical understanding, it has had on its books other than its race drivers.
Speaking to The Race in London last month, Volpe said that he didn’t doubt that "Sacha can be, and will be at some point, a strong driver within Formula E”.
Volpe also suggested that Fenestraz’s 2024 issues have been primarily “only in his head” and that he had “no doubt he has the skills to work on that”.
“We just need to see and understand if he can be ready from day one next season for Nissan, because next season the objective is not to be where we are now,” added Volpe. “The objective is to fight for the championship and we need both drivers to be in great shape for that.
“I’ve really no doubt that at some point he will be a strong driver in Formula E, the question very transparently is: is it the right time and the right team? But we will postpone these decisions until after London.”
Nissan is expected to confirm Fenestraz and Rowland for the 2024-25 season, which begins in Sao Paulo in December, next month.
Who will Nissan Target for Gen4?
Nissan doesn’t have the best reputation for making solid long-term driver decisions, with something of a revolving door in its seats in recent seasons.
Once Sebastien Buemi left the team, which he had been with for eight seasons, in the summer of 2022, and Maximilian Guenther had completed a difficult one-off campaign at the end of the Gen2 era that same year, Nissan elected to sign Fenestraz and Nato.
But when Rowland became available after a split with Mahindra in June 2023, Nissan decided to change tact again by replacing Nato - despite him having outscored Fenestraz on points and bringing the team its first podium for almost two seasons.
While the move for Rowland paid off handsomely, Fenestraz struggled with little sign of the pace and race execution that his team-mate was able to deliver.
That has raised doubts about his capacity to deliver at the highest level in Formula E, meaning that Nissan’s next driver move has been accelerated for the Gen4 period or possibly earlier if it is able to extricate a driver from an existing contract.
The aforementioned da Costa will be of continued interest to Nissan as he is known to have one more season on his Porsche deal, covering next season.
His occasionally distant relationship with some of the senior team at Porsche is well-known after The Race revealed the unusual situation there earlier this year.
Da Costa is known to want to return to the World Endurance Championship as soon as possible, and while he will not be allowed to do this next season, full-time at least, he will want a season-long deal in 2026. That is when it is possible that Nico Mueller will replace da Costa at the works team after a potential one-off season at customer squad Andretti in 2025.
Nissan has been reasonably tolerant of its previous drivers doing dual campaigns, with Buemi even able to represent two Japanese giants, Nissan and Toyota, for several seasons. Da Costa could therefore re-engage in a double programme like the one that he successfully employed while at DS Techeetah and Jota from 2019-22.
Two other names that have already become linked to Nissan are Mitch Evans and Theo Pourchaire.
Evans has a deal with Jaguar until at least the end of the 2024-25 season, but probably beyond that after an extension to their collaboration was made public last August.
Nissan though is known to be keen on Evans, who experienced another title defeat during an at times fractious season finale in London last month.
Jaguar prizes Evans though and will protect one of its key assets aggressively, meaning that even Nissan’s ambition and long-term investment in Formula E may not be enough to tempt Evans away.
Pourchaire meanwhile is pursuing a career in IndyCar, after the reigning Formula 2 champion joined McLaren and signed for the rest of 2024 in May, only to be dropped by the team a month later.
There are limited opportunities for 2025 with too many drivers and not enough seats in the North American series, with the top teams seemingly filled already.
The 20-year-old has Formula E experience having been a development driver for Spark when testing the Gen3 design in 2022.
Pouchaire is believed to want to try to get a full-time IndyCar drive for 2025 and make a career Stateside, although he is known to be open to other possibilities for his future.