Why Nissan's e.dams buyout signifies its Formula E victory intent

In Formula E’s formative years, one team was evidently a cut above the other outfits that bought into the all-electric series’ principles and joined up in its early days.

DAMS, the French racing squad with a lengthy history in Formula 3000, then GP2 and Formula Renault 3.5, created its e.dams off-shoot to participate in the first season of Formula E. It was backed by Renault, in an immediate signalling of intent to build its own powertrain once the rules were opened up for the second season.

For a French team to be seemingly named after a Dutch cheese, the incongruity was marginally hilarious – but ultimately, e.dams had a brie-lient start to life in the championship and secured the first three teams’ titles. Sebastien Buemi won the second season’s drivers’ title, and arguably should have won the third had he not missed races due to a clashing World Endurance Championship schedule.

PLUS: Ranking the top 10 DAMS drivers

Following Renault’s withdrawal to allow its fellow Alliance brand Nissan to take over, the team has enjoyed mixed fortunes amid a manufacturer boom for the Gen2 regulations; Nissan’s dual-motor powertrain delivered success but was outlawed ahead of the 2019-20 season and put the Japanese manufacturer behind the eight-ball.

While Nissan’s Formula E car itself has precipitated a period of struggle, the manufacturer sees the championship as a key component in its future. And having been pleased with its relationship with e.dams, which operates the race team, Nissan has doubled down by purchasing it outright from Olivier and Gregory Driot, who took control of DAMS following the passing of their father and team founder Jean-Paul. Thus, Nissan has its ducks in a row, taking full control over both the design and manufacturing of its internals and now the race team ahead of next year’s transition to the all-new Gen3 regulations.

Buemi won the 2015-16 Formula E title, as Renault e.dams swept the first three teams' titles, but wins in the Nissan era have been the exception to the norm

Photo by: Adam Warner / Motorsport Images

Discussing the decision to purchase e.dams in an exclusive call with Autosport, Nissan chief operating officer Ashwani Gupta explained that having more control across the full team will ensure that the manufacturer can enjoy the short-term view of being able to prepare for Gen3 with a fuller picture – and added that Nissan’s longer-term aspirations in the field of e-mobility can benefit from its control over the race team.

“I think there are three things which influenced us to go for it,” Gupta says. “One is short term. Since we started in 2018 with e.dams, our relationship was extremely good and we are collaborating with each other. Now moving forward, as we decided to invest for Gen3, we wanted to have the full control of each and every touchpoint in Formula E, including the powertrain as a project, but also the racing team. And that's why, in line with the future, we decided to buy it.

"The moment the team is owned by Nissan we can make full synergy with all the operations. And if you look at the car manufacturers in Formula E, they tend to have a car development and the racing team under the same roof" Tommaso Volpe

“Then mid- and long-term, I would say, lies in Nissan Ambition 2030; we’ve talked about electrification, and we’ve talked about a 50% electrified ratio [for Nissan’s full product range] by 2030, in line with carbon neutrality in 2050. And that's why we wanted to have a clearer understanding of the track and its transfer technology to road, and also from road to the track. In line with our mid- and long-term [plans], it was also important for us to make Formula E an integral part of Nissan Motor Company - not only as a vehicle, but also as a racing team.”

Ever since its Leaf hit mainstream success following its launch in 2010, Nissan has increased its range of electrified and hybridised vehicles. As Formula E continues to grow, it makes sense to underpin its products with a tangible marketing campaign based upon its racing exploits. After all, manufacturers have lived by the same mantra for decades: win on Sunday, sell on Monday.

To help its Formula E team to start winning again, Nissan’s purchase of the e.dams squad now gives it the latitude to start seconding its engineers to the race team in order to not only provide their experience, but to also return to Yokohama with their own experiences and feed that back as Nissan works towards its 2030 targets to expanding its product range further.

“We have produced more than half a million Leafs, with a demonstration of far more capability and capacity to invest in batteries, e-powertrains, and so on,” Gupta adds. “And definitely, Formula E also gives us an opportunity to create more awareness of our electrification. Some of the technologies which we have in Ariya [Nissan’s battery electric crossover SUV] have reflection from what we learned in Formula E. So it’s definitely moving forwards, and Formula E is going to contribute more and more towards marketing awareness of electrification.”

“The R&D remains in France. However, from Japan, we have already sent many engineers already to France to work on this project. And now the Japan team and the French team are working together exactly for the same purpose of transferring that know-how from each other.”

Formula E is an appealing marketing vehicle for Nissan as it attempts to electrify its automotive fleet

Photo by: Simon Galloway / Motorsport Images

Naturally, that crossover between the automotive manufacturer and the team bred for racing will ensure that the e.dams part is fully stocked with engineers with track records of developing electric cars. From there, it’ll be on the engineers already at the team to take that knowledge and transfer it into a racing environment.

That said, Nissan Formula E general manager Tommaso Volpe, who also takes over as the managing director of the e.dams part of the team, says that he has full faith in the current make-up of the squad. He says that bringing e.dams ‘in-house’ means that Nissan now has some degree of symmetry with the other manufacturer squads on the grid, which own and operate their own race teams as well as developing their components for the car.

“This is definitely one of the benefits of holding the team, that we can make full synergy with the car development operations as well,” Volpe explains. “Because at the moment that as you know, the car is developed within the Alliance platform, and the team is an independent company.

“But the moment the team is owned by Nissan we can make full synergy with all the operations. And if you look at the car manufacturers in Formula E, they tend to have a car development and the racing team under the same roof. So of course, this could be a one change in the future.

“But we trust 100% the people involved in the racing team: all the engineers, the mechanics, and there is no plan to change anyone and it's just a matter of now that the company is owned by Nissan and how to make it work in synchronisation with Nissan.”

This brings Volpe onto the subject of Gen3, for which teams will receive their standard parts – including the chassis – from Formula E and set about loading it up with its own powertrain ready to test. With the drive motor capacity now upped to 350kW and a front-mounted motor bringing the regeneration capabilities up to 600kW, the Gen3 cars will be a different beast to the current generation of cars.

PLUS: How a Formula E mainstay's new home is helping it prepare for Gen3

Volpe says that Nissan is on track with its Gen3 progress, but that the true proof of the pudding will be in testing. From there, the team can begin to iterate its software and explore the capabilities of the powertrain ahead of the 2022-23 season.

Volpe, who will become the managing director of the new set-up, says bringing the team formally in-house has tangible benefits

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

Nissan hopes that the new ruleset will bring it back to the front of the field. But, Volpe adds, it won’t come at the detriment of trying to squeeze every last drop from the Gen2 car before it’s put out to pasture following the Seoul finale in August.

“We will know [where we are] in few weeks’ time, when we will start testing the car,” he says. “We think we are on track with the development, we are very clear on the target we wanted to achieve. Which is the most important thing, to be clear on what we want to achieve. And let's see. We hope everything is going in the right direction. But only time will tell because we really need to put the car on track and test it before having a proper assessment of what we've done so far.

“We want to do as well as possible and we want to finish the championship in a better position as compared to last season. Of course, the focus is obviously also on Gen3, because the current development has to be finished in a few weeks’ time. And so it is a parallel job.

"We are getting confident with Gen3, and with Nissan now with the control of the racing team, definitely, we will have much more confidence" Ashwani Gupta

“But it is that people in motorsport, they never forget that they are competitors, and they want to win or to do as well as they can, even if there is another plan coming up. And they don't like to be on the back of the grid. So the spirit is always there in the team.”

When the Gen3 car breaks cover ahead of the Monaco E-Prix, with the covers due to come off on 28 May, Formula E will follow that with a roundtable of manufacturers to discuss their plans for a fourth-generation car. When asked if Nissan had any particular wishes in mind for the next-next-generation car, Gupta mentioned that it was too early to say – but hinted that Nissan was looking to extend its stay beyond the current ruleset.

“Definitely, when we are investing heavily on electrification, we are not going to stop at Gen3 only,” he says. “However, it's early for us to say what Gen4 looks like.

“We are getting confident with Gen3, and with Nissan now with the control of the racing team, definitely, we will have much more confidence. That’s what we are looking for. Obviously, you know, when we, participate in the racing, nobody wants to be second, third, fourth, everybody wants to win. And we also want to win.”

With investment and know-how from Nissan as the advances in electric vehicles continues to increase over the next decade, the team is going all-in on Formula E. With e.dams now by its side as its own proper race team, Nissan will hope that the French squad can roll back the years and enjoy the dominance it once exuded in Formula E’s early years. After all, anyone can win in Formula E, and with Gen3 offering a reset, Nissan has a huge opportunity to stake its claim as the best of the bunch and charge back up to the top.

Nissan has high hopes for its performance as the Gen3 era draws nearer

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images