Nathanael Berthon has described driving a Formula E car on full 200kw power as ‘like Christmas’ after having his first taste of the all-electric race at Donington Park earlier this week.
The GP2 race winner spent a full day with Team Aguri, running an extended test programme in the penultimate outing before the cars are shipped off to China for the Beijing ePrix on October 17. After spending the majority of the test running at 150kw race mode, in the final half hour the Frenchman was given the chance to try full, 200kw qualifying power.
“When you do all the laps at 150, when you do one lap at 200 it’s like Christmas!” he said. “I’m very happy about my day. First of all I would like to say thanks a lot to Team Aguri for letting have the opportunity to try the series. I just took it step by step like if I was starting again because it’s completely new, you have a lot of stuff to understand. I wanted to help the team to develop a little bit and I hope I did. For me it was a really good day.”
Berthon was one of the members of the Formula E drivers club – a pool of drivers who registered an interest in racing in the championship ahead of season one – and he remains very keen to find a race seat in the series.
“I’m really interested in this series for many reasons,” he confirmed. “It’s a series where you have to use your brain: a lot of strategy, a lot of things to think about to help the team as well to develop the car and also from a driving point of view. Today I have learnt a lot and I’m sure if I did more tests it would be better and better. It’s really interesting and I want to use my brain this time!”