According to The Race, The NEOM McLaren Formula E Team has decided that they will complete the Gen3 era as a customer of the Nissan Formula E Team.
McLaren joined Formula E last year after taking Mercedes-EQ’s place, with the German manufacturer having exited the all-electric series ahead of the latest generation of car. The Woking-based side have done well so far as a Nissan customer, with their powertrains having powered Jake Hughes to two pole positions in his debut campaign.
René Rast also claimed a podium in Diriyah, which is where Formula E is this weekend, for the first double-header of Season 10. Formula E is already looking ahead to Season 11 though, with the powertrains allowed to be worked on for Gen3 Evo, which is being introduced in the next campaign. Currently, all hardware is under homologation.
It’s already been confirmed that Abt Cupra will no longer be a Mahindra customer team next season, but as for McLaren, they’re sticking with Nissan for the second half of the Gen3 era.
McLaren Team Principal Ian James told The Race that “the intention from the beginning was to work together with Nissan throughout Gen3” and that it is still “very much the intention and we’re very pleased with the collaboration that we’ve had so far”.
Nissan’s powertrain has proven to be one of the sharpest over one-lap, with it being particularly effective in qualifying. Whilst it needs some work done to it in terms of energy management, the Japanese manufacturer have an excellent place to build from for Season 11.
James and Nissan are both aware that they’ve “got a lot of work to do” in order to become truly competitive against the Porsches and the Jaguars, with McLaren being kept informed on Nissan’s powertrain developments.
“Both ourselves and Nissan know that we’ve got a lot of work to do to close the gap to the competition, and as you can imagine development work for season 11, for the second amount of homologation for Gen3, is well underway,” James said.
“We’ve been very much kept up to speed with the progress on that.
“So we are looking forward to continuing that relationship, both for next season and beyond.”
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