Nicolas Lapierre believes the Formula E car presents an enjoyable challenge to extract the most from after having a full day’s running for Team Aguri in this week’s Donington test.
Lapierre – who together with Alex Premat took Team France to the inaugural A1GP title – completed more than three race distances as he worked through a packed testing schedule for the team and he is open to the possibility of racing the car in season two.
“It was very special, very different to anything else obviously,” he said. “The first lap when I went out of the pits without any noise, it felt very strange. But in the end it was a good experience, there were many new parameters I had to learn like the all-weather tyres and the electric power with the torque is very different, so it took me a bit of time to get used to the car but in the end I had good fun and I really enjoyed it.”
The winner of this year’s LMP2 class at Le Mans also had the opportunity to try the Team Aguri – which runs the same powertrain as in season one – in qualifying mode.
“Switching from 150kw to 200kw for qualifying, and only having two laps at this level of power, means you need to get used to it very quickly,” he noted. “The car is not easy – in terms of lap time it’s not faster than what I’ve driven before, but it’s complicated to go fast.”