Oliver Turvey has described NIO’s testing window ahead of Formula E’s sixth season of competition as “crucial” to the team’s improvement after a disappointing 2018/19 campaign.
Turvey remained with the Chinese NIO squad for the first season of Formula E’s Gen2 era, however, has experienced a difficult and disappointing season to date, scoring only six points in 10 races.
On the other side of the NIO garage, team-mate Tom Dillmann has also struggled, with the Frenchman failing to secure a top 10 finish so far this season, with the team’s 004 package failing to compete with the all-electric single-seater series’ other 10 teams.
The Berlin E-Prix marked a particularly challenging weekend for NIO, with Turvey and Dillmann finishing at the rear of the field, beating only GEOX Dragon’s Jose Maria Lopez and non-classified finishers Andre Lotterer and Alex Lynn.
“It is frustrating, especially after last season where we made some good progress.,” Turvey told Motorsport Week.
“We had our first podium and we were quite competitive, ending every qualifying inside the top 10 really. We had a lot of strong races including a strong race last year in Berlin.
“It’s hard when you’re pushing as hard as you can and it feels that this year we don’t seem to have the same pace. We made some progress but the competition is very high this year and it’s not easy.”
With three races remaining in Formula E’s present season, the series’ 2019/20 campaign is poised to commence later this year. Looking ahead to next season, Turvey described the team’s allotted 15 days of testing as “crucial” to NIO’s development:
“Between the seasons you can make a bigger step than in the season so obviously with the design for next season, hopefully, we can make a good step forward and I think certainly the development testing will be really crucial,” he continued.
“We get 15 days of testing which we’ve really got to make the most of and make sure we prepare and improve as much as we can for Season 6.
“Once you’re in the season with the limited practice time, the limited track time you can only really tune the car for the race weekend but I think those test days are going to be really crucial and obviously, preparing for next season we need to make a good step.”
NIO Formula E began testing its Season 6 package at Mallory Park on Monday.
Formula E’s European leg of Season 5 will come to a close on June 22 with the inaugural Bern E-Prix while the championship’s season finale will take place from July 13-14 with the double-header New York City E-Prix.
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