Nissan

**Nissan e.dams** is a French-Japanese racing team and the works team of Nissan in Formula International. A division of the highly succesful DAMS team, Nissan originally raced in what was Formula E as Renault e.dams, being Renault's original feeder team, and won three succesive team titles. After Renault decided to stop supporting them in 2018 in order to focus on their F1 team, the team switched to Nissan powertrains, becoming Nissan e.dams and Nissan's works team. Folllowing the restrcutcure of the series and their renaming to Formula International, Nissan switched into developing young talent. In all of the years of the sport, Nissan has been one of the most succesful teams, winning multiple titles and also serving as a stepping stone for exciting prospects, mostly draftees from major teams. Over the years, many notable drivers like Ivan Marincic, Giovanni de Ziel and Andrei Aimansha have raced for the team and some even have won titles with the team.

## Origins and Formula E History

DAMS is a French racing team that has exclusively raced in feeder series, having been one of the most succesful teams in those territories, winning titles in GP2/F2 and GP3/F3 as well as developing young talent. Also, back in 1996, the team had made a Formula 1 car, the DAMS GD-01, but ultimately did not enter the 1996 season due to a lack of funds and ever since have focused on feeder series. In 2014, the team decided to enter the newly created Formula E series with support from Renault. On their first three seasons, they won three team titles and two driver titles with Sebastian Buemi and Nicolas Prost. However, in 2018, due to decreased support from Renault, the team failed to score a single win.

In 2019, DAMS switched to Nissan, but they were still unable to score many wins and ultimately decided to make a restructuring due to the impeding renaming of the series to Formula International and the change in the motorsport ladder.

## 2020: The first champions

In 2020, the team signed two very exciting 16yo prospects, Croatian sensation Ivan Marincic and German starlet Felix Neurether. In what was a fantastic year for the team, Marincic took the paddock by storm despite his very tender age and became the first ever champion of Formula International and as of now the youngest ever champion of the series. Neurether was not as fast as his prodigiously talented teammate, but still managed to finish at a respectable 7th place at just 16. In the end of their fantastic year, both drivers would depart, with Marincic moving straight to Formula Earth with Audi and Neurether moving to Mercedes in Formula International after being drafted from the works team.

## 2021-2026: Being perennial second fiddle

The team changed heir lineup completely for 2021, picking up two Red Bull starlets, German prodigy Ness Muller from Mercedes and Japanese youngster Tanjiro Kamado from the withdrawing Mahindra team. The team this time failed to win a title, with Muller finishing third and Kamado sixth and being beaten by the storming Mercedes team, who ironically had taken Neurether from them. Muller, who had impressed the most, moved to Alpha Tauri, but Kamado stayed for one more year. The team signed British youngster Billy Mathman from DS Tehceetah as his replacement. 2022 was a year of improvement, with Mathman impressing and finishing second, behind champion Nicholas Latifi and Kamado finished fourth. Both drivers moved to Formula Earth for 2023, Mathman at Aston Martin and Kamado at Alpha Tauri, reuniting with Muller.

In 2023, Nissan signed Dutch prodigy Giovanni de Ziel from Venturi but also made a questionable signing by getting Mario Leduc from Geely. The team this time was defeated by the all-dominating Tesla Dragon, with de Ziel finishing third, but Leduc struggled badly with the car and finishing just 8th. Both drivers would exit the team, with de Ziel this time making the move up to Formula Earth with Sauber. For 2024, Nissan signed two ex-Formula Earth drivers, Neurether, who was ousted from Audi despite impressing, thus returning to his old team, and former Williams driver Rock Hils. Despite their experience, they failed to win the title, losing to the all-conquering Racing Point and Neurether and Hils finishing third and fourth and second in the team standings, losing everything to the Canadian team. Both drivers left at the end of the year and the team signed for 2025 Antoine Robespierre from Geely and Edvin Beqiri from Tesla Dragon. 2025 was a weak year, with Robespierre finishing 5th and Beqiri 7th, but still both drivers managed to impress enough to move to Formula Earth for Red Bull and Shadow each. 2026 was also a weak year, with Neurether returning for a third spell and Lithuanian ex-Prema driver Saulius Sudzius racing for the team.

## 2027-2031: Back to the top

In 2027, the team signed Mercedes test driver Roman Massey and kept Neurether for one more year. This year was a fantastic season for them, as Massey won the team's first title since 2020. Neurether on the other hand struggled badly and only finished 7th. For 2028, Massey was kept and Robespierre came to replace Neurether. During the year, Massey was looking for a potential second succesive title, but only raced for the first half of the season. Following Marincic's death in Shangai, Massey was promoted by Mercedes to the first team on a permanent basis. Nissan chose Italian Simone Cimorelli for his replacement. Despite initial criticism over his lack of success, Cimorelli defied the odds by winning his first race for the team and scoring one more podium. Robespierre was competitive and finished 2nd, losing narrowly to Latifi.

For 2029, Nissan receiced Andrei Aimansha on loan from Mercedes and also signed journeyman Sake Okasas. The 2029 season was another year of success. Aimansha, who was a few years ago about to be left as a free agent after roaming around backmarker teams, won 8 out of 16 races and won the title, becoming the first Russian to do so. Okasas also impressed, winning his first ever race in the sport on his Nissan debut and helping the team win their third double of the team. However, both drivers left at the end of the year, Aimansha being promoted to Mercedes's first team and Okasas moving for his last year at newcomers BP Silverstone. For 2030, the team returned to their original youth driver policy, signing French prospect Santino Andreoli-Richard and Malaysian Shawn Yong. The highly-rated duo impressed by finishing 3rd and 4th on their full debut campaigns, failing to win the title after Racing Point dominated everything during that year. In 2031, Andreoil made a shock move to Mercedes following him being drafted by the works team and Nissan kept Yong and signed highly-rated Brazilian Luca Amaral. The team had a weak season, finishing 3rd, with Amaral 5th and Yong 6th.

## 2032-2033: The two golden years

In 2032, Yong moved to McLaren, with the team signing Audi reject Robert Gine, who had announced that he would retire at the end of the year despite being aged 23 years old. 2032 saw the team enjoy a very succesful year, with Amaral, still aged 18 years old, winning his very fist title and Gine narrowly missing 2nd place, as Nissan won the double. 2033 was an even more succesful year. Despite losing both Amaral and Gine, the former moving to Saudia and the latter retiring, the team chose to win this through experienced drivers, signing 32 year old ex-Mercedes and Prema driver Kevin Buffon, who would race for the final time in the sport and 2030 FI champion Miguel Angel Larrazabal Rojas. The team managed for the first time to do the 1-2 in the driver standings, with Buffon becoming the oldest FI champion in the proccess. It was the team's most succesful season to date.

## 2034-2037: Close calls and back to title drought

For 2034, following their success with experience, Nissan chose to return to youngsters and for the first time signed a driver with a long-term contract, the exciting Swede Soren Larsson on a three year contract. Alongside him the team signed Red Bull starter Emillio Guerra, who was tipped to win the title by a landslide following a fantastic debut season with Geely. Despite being tipped for dominance, the team had many misfortunes, especially with Guerra suffering a season-ending injury early. Former Alpine stalwart Josep Esperanca, who was left without a drive last year, filled in for the remainder of the season. Larrson was exceptional on his debut season, finishing 2nd, but Esperanca proved to be not good enough for the team, scoring just 76 points.

Esperanca was ousted from the team and Guerra moved to Alpha Tauri. Following this, the team signed Otobong Reese for 2035. This year proved to be a downturn in performances. Larsson only finished 6th and Reece 10th, as the team struggled for results. In 2036, Reese made the step back to Formula Champions in order to focus on his development and Nissan signed highly rated prospect Charles Lauvergne. The team battled again for the title, as Larsson again came short of it finishing 2nd. Lauvergne showed glimpses of his potential despite being aged 16, finishing 8th and even scoring a win.

## 2037-present: Decline

2037 was a difficult season for the team, despite keeing Lauvergne for a second year and Reese returning after a season in FC. Nissan had slipped in the midfield for the first time in their history and despite strong results from both drivers, with Lauvergne especially continuing to show his potential, Nissan finished 8th after losing 7th to HSBC Nero. In 2038, things went even worse, as Lauvergne was loaned to Geely Nio and the team was beginning to face some financial problems. Eli Lea'ai was signed on an one-year contract, but with support from Gazprom Lada, as Lea'ai is the brother of Lada's star driver Levi Lea'ai, with this support helping the team get additional funds. Nissan was for the first time stuck in the back of the grid and finished last with no points and a string of poor results, having their worst season of their history.

In 2039, Larrazabal Rojas returned to the team following his release from Ferrari and Gazprom Lada draftee Marcos Torres was also signed on loan. Larrazabal scored strong results and a podium finish, while Torres struggled on his rookie season and only scored 6 points. The duo was retained for 2040, with Larrazabal scoring the team's only win of the season and two other podiums on his way to 10th in the standings. Torres also improved on his second season at the sport.

## Notable Drivers

* Ivan Marincic (2020)
* Felix Neurether (2020, 2024, 2026-2027)
* Ness Muller (2021)
* Tanjiro Kamado (2021-2022)
* Billy Mathman (2022)
* Giovanni de Ziel (2023)
* Mario Leduc (2023)
* Rock Hils (2024)
* Antoine Robespierre (2025, 2028)
* Edvin Beqiri (2025)
* Saulius Sudzius (2026)
* Roman Massey (2027-2028)
* Simone Cimorelli (2028)
* Andrei Aimansha (2029
* Sake Okasas (2029)
* Santino Andreoli-Richard (2030)
* Shawn Yong (2030-2031)
* Luca Amaral (2031-2032)
* Robert Gine (2032)
* Kevin Buffon (2033)
* Miguel Angel Larazzabal Rojas (2033, 2039-2040)
* Soren Larrson (2034-2036)
* Emilio Guerra (2034)
* Josep Esperanca (2034)
* Otobong Reese (2035, 2037-2038)
* Charles Lauvergne (2036-2037)
* Eli Lea'ai (2038)
* Marcos Torres (2039-present)