until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
Dan Ticktum, Sergio Sette Camara and Daniil Kvyat are in the frame for racing for the NIO 333 team next season as the 2024 Formula E grid continues to take shape.
Ticktum and Sette Camara are believed to have options to stay with the Chinese-owned, British-based team, while Kvyat and his manager Nicolas Todt continue dialogue with owners around his two appearances for the team in testing and practice sessions.
Former Toro Rosso and Red Bull F1 driver Kvyat will run in the specially-arranged free practice session in Rome this afternoon in his second appearance in a car. He will drive Sette Camara’s car in the 30-minute session.
Kvyat, who is racing for the Prema LMP2 team alongside Doriane Pin, Andrea Caldarelli and Mathias Beche this season, will switch to the Hypercar category with the recently unveiled Lamborghini SC630 LMDh design.
He could dovetail that with a Formula E campaign if NIO 333 chose to take him alongside one of its current drivers.
Equally, Kvyat could have his eyes on the vacant Mahindra seat alongside Lucas di Grassi. Todt held discussions with the Indian team in 2018 when Kvyat faced career uncertainty in F1.
Kvyat told The Race in Rome yesterday that his plans, apart from the Lamborghini deal, were “open” and that he “didn’t have a defined program in terms of Formula E but there is a lot of chances that I might be here as well”.
“We’ll see, and we will see what is possible, and then we will take a collective decision,” he added.
On Friday’s free practice running Kvyat said that it was going to be a session where you try to learn the track, get up to speed more or less, try to get some useful data for the team ahead of the weekend.
“I think it’s going to be a bit of a build-up for that. We did a good session on the simulator and I feel ready to try this new track for myself.”
Ticktum could stay on at NIO 333 for a third season and told The Race that in his opinion it was “likely” that he and Sette Camara would remain.
“I can’t confirm at the moment; I don’t know what his [Sette Camara’s] plans are and I don’t necessarily know mine. I think it’s likely that I’ll be here next year.”
Ticktum has starred in several races this year but has generally been held back by the Gen3 NIO package’s poor efficiency over race distances.
He acknowledged that “improvements have been made overall compared to last year”.
“It’s a different car and everything but I think in terms of how we’ve performed as a team, how we’ve adapted to things, etc, [it] has been better, which is positive.
“But there is no shying away from the fact that the efficiency has been pretty disappointing from my side, and obviously Sergio’s as well.
“It’s a bit frustrating because our one-lap pace is quite strong so it makes it difficult to convert it in the race. “
“I think even if we were just a little bit better we could be in the points quite a lot. That’s obviously the main focus for the next season. Next year will be difficult to make massive changes because obviously the [homologation] regulations.
“As long as we keep going forwards and then hopefully for season 11 I think it is, we can make some big steps.
“We’ll see, and we will see what is possible, and then we will take a collective decision.”
