Big first day at Formula E school for Nissan

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Today marks an auspicious moment for Nissan, with the Japanese manufacturer making its first appearance in an official on-track test session for the ABB FIA Formula E electric championship.

2015/16 series champion Sebastien Buemi and Formula 2 driver Alex Albon are in action for Nissan this week in three days of pre-season testing at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain.

In partnership with Royal Dutch Shell PLC, the Nissan e.dams team is joining the series just as the new Gen2 car is being introduced, which marks a major change for Formula E.

“We won’t have the change of cars midway through the race," explained Buemi. "[This] highlights the fact that the technology in the batteries has been improving massively in just a few years.

“The car looks very different; I think it looks great. It’s also more powerful, and the range is much better.”

Albon said he was looking forward to working with Buemi over the next four days and expected to learn a lot from the experience.

“He’s the king of Formula E; he’s got the most the most wins, most poles, and fastest laps,” Albon said. “He brings a lot to the team, and there will be a lot I can learn from him.

"He’s vastly experienced with energy management, and that’s so important in Formula E. I plan to try to learn as much as I can and soak up everything.”

Testing got underway this morning at 9am local time, with a second three hour session in the afternoon. The pattern is repeated on Wednesday and Friday.

The first race of the season takes place in Saudi Arabia on December 15.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.