Nissan’s Sacha Fenestraz has told Motorsport Week that whilst his ambitions are realistic for the rest of Season 10, he is confident of getting more results that build on his impressive showing in Misano.
The Frenchman scored his first points of the year in Italy, with ninth in race one and fifth in race two, and with Monaco – where he qualified second and finished fourth last year – on the horizon, Fenestraz is hopeful of a repeat performance.
“It would be good definitely,” he said, adding: “I’d be lying if I said I expected this kind of result, but I think the reality is that everybody has improved a lot since last year, and the beginning of this year has been a tough one for me, but let’s see – I’m confident, I like the track, and last year we did a good job and was close to the podium, so I’m hoping for another weekend like that.”
It has been a season that has exceeded expectations for the Nissan team, with team-mate Oliver Rowland third in the Drivers’ table, scoring four podiums on the bounce. Fenestraz has been unable to match the performances of the Yorkshireman, but is aware and realistic of the gulf in experience between himself and his team-mate.
“It’s a positive thing, and Oliver especially has shown the performance is there and we’ve managed to go a step forward from last year, and I think the experience he is bringing to the team, in terms of everything like setup, is really helpful.
“We need to keep going and for sure, if we can achieve another result together it will be quite amazing.”
“It was a boost of confidence that was needed, I was having a hard time this season, seeing my team-mate at the top and myself struggling a bit more, but I’m being quite realistic as Oliver has six years of experience and I’m in my second season so I need to take everything step-by-step, and the fifth place in Misano was quite helpful so the target is to keep going like this.”
Ahead of the launch of FIA Formula E’s GEN3 Evo car, CEO Jeff Dodds told Motorsport Week that whilst he enjoys the blend of different races on this year’s calendar, he his unwilling for the sport to lose its “DNA” of primarily racing on street circuits, a sentiment Fenestraz shared before Misano. And whilst he is happy Dodds has echoed this, Fenestraz is cautious.
“Since Jeff joined the board of FE, he’s honestly been doing amazing stuff, and I hope those words of his are true, I hope what he says about more city tracks and not losing the DNA is true. At the moment, what I’m seeing is not the case, as we are going to Misano and Shanghai, and there’s talks about more permanent tracks, but let’s see what he says is really true, but my comments are still the same: I hope Formula E won’t lose its DNA.”
