Various incidents involving Nissan cars in London destroy all Formula E title hopes

Nissan travelled to the Formula E season finale in London with high hopes. After Oliver Rowland had already secured the drivers' title in Berlin, Nissan also had the opportunity to win the two remaining world championship titles for the teams and manufacturers. However, after an absolutely disappointing race weekend, both titles went to Porsche. And it got worse: Jaguar also overtook Nissan in both classifications. The turquoise-coloured special livery of the Nissan e-4ORCE 05 did not bring the team any luck.

After a disappointing Saturday race, Nissan's prospects of winning the two titles for teams and manufacturers had already deteriorated significantly: while Pascal Wehrlein drove home in third place for Porsche, Norman Nato was the best-placed Nissan-powered driver in ninth place. As a result, Nissan needed really good results to have a say in the fight for the championships.

Both Nissan drivers narrowly missed out on the duel phase of qualifying and started from 9th and 10th place. Things initially went well in the race, with the two drivers already in 6th and 7th place after three laps. While Rowland continued to make progress and was already in 2nd place in the first third of the race, two collisions on laps 9 and 15 shattered all of Nissan's title dreams.

Nato in the wrong place at the wrong time

Nato was involved in the incident through no fault of his own: McLaren driver Taylor Barnard forced his way past Nico Müller, but left the racing line in the process. Shortly afterwards, he made contact with Max Günther, who had passed the duo on the outside, spun into the TecPro barrier and was hit by Nato, who was driving directly behind Günther. The race was over for Barnard, Nato had to pit and have a new front wing fitted - a first major setback for Nissan's title ambitions.

Mueller was also involved again in Oliver Rowland's retirement: In the battle between the two, Rowland left the track and drove back onto it. In doing so, he hit Müller's rear tyre at a 90-degree angle, both drivers retired. The stewards placed the blame for the collision solely on Rowland, who had driven back onto the track in an unsafe manner. As a consequence, he received a grid penalty for the season opener in Sao Paulo.

Nato: "A disappointing weekend in general"

Since Nato was only able to finish 11th after the repair pit stop, Nissan was left without any points in the final race of the season. Thanks to Nick Cassidy's third victory in a row, Jaguar was able to overtake Nissan in the teams' standings. As Sebastien Buemi in a customer Jaguar finished on the podium and both McLaren drivers retired, Jaguar also overtook Nissan in the manufacturers' championship. In the end, only 3rd place remained in both classifications.

"It was a great start to the race as I worked together with Oli to make up positions and we made our way into the top six," explained Norman Nato after the race. "However, an incident happened right in front of me which I couldn’t avoid, resulting in damage that meant I had to pit."

"We managed to come back through the field just missing out on points in 11th," continued the Frenchman. "It was a disappointing weekend in general, but everyone has done an amazing job this season to have us fighting for the Teams’ and Manufacturers’ Championships until the very end. It’s part of the journey with the team, and we know that the squad can perform even better in the future."

Team Principal Volpe: "Our mistakes will help us next season"

"It's of course disappointing to finish third in both the Teams' and Manufacturers' Championships after leading them for parts of the season," said Nissan Team Principal Tommaso Volpe. "However, if we take a step back, we can be very proud with this amazing year. We've achieved seven podiums and four victories, we've secured the Drivers' Championship with two races to go, and we were in the fight for the Teams' and Manufacturers' until the very last race."

"We’ve been competitive throughout and we've matured together as a team. And our mistakes and anything that didn't go our way during this campaign will help us to be even stronger next season," concludes the Italian.

But it will take a while until then. The new 2025-26 season starts in Sao Paulo on 6 December, more than four months from now. Before that, the pre-season tests will take place in Valencia from 27 to 31 October.