The Formula E off-season proved to be a busy time for Andretti Global as the American outfit underwent a rebrand and launched a new livery. Meanwhile, Jake Dennis swapped his #27 for the coveted #1 plate – the Briton’s prerogative as reigning champion.
There was also a new driver signing for the team ahead of the upcoming season, which gets underway in Mexico City on 13 January. Andre Lotterer was replaced by former Nissan driver Norman Nato after a dismal 2022-23 campaign in which the three-time Le Mans winner scored points on only five occasions and failed to reach the podium.
While a replacement for Lotterer came as no surprise to anyone, as the German elected to call time on his single-seater career and focus his attentions on Porsche's LMDh programme, Nato’s name was certainly not at the top of the list for many. Especially with the likes of 2020-21 champion Nyck de Vries back on the market after his brief foray into Formula 1.
This season will mark only Nato’s third full campaign in the all-electric championship, during which time the 31-year-old has driven for three different teams, but perhaps more significantly, used three different powertrains as well. It puts the Frenchman in something of a unique position on the Formula E grid, as even with only 33 race starts under his belt (far less than the outright record of 115 currently held by Lucas di Grassi) Nato has more knowledge than most at his disposal.
It’s an obvious appeal for the likes of customer team Andretti but, also poses potential problems of having to adapt to a new system – in this case, Porsche’s powertrain. Nato is all too aware of the challenge he faces at the start of this season.
“The tricky part for joining a new team is when the manufacturer of the powertrain is different, from Nissan to Porsche for example, everything is so different,” Nato tells Autosport.
“All the software, all the steering wheel is different, so this is the tricky part. I have to forget everything I’ve learned at Nissan and just adapt to everything which is new and different. I would say set-up-wise it is a bit different, but this adaptation would be pretty quick.
Source: Autosport