It has been almost exactly a year since Sergio Sette Camara drove a Formula E car when he finished a fighting 11th at the London EPrix finale.
There then followed a long and frustrating wait for clarity on his position at the ERT team, which soon became CUPRA KIRO. That wait concluded around the time of the pre-season test at Jarama and the abrupt end was felt by the Brazilian not to be handled particularly well by his former team.
But he didn’t cry too much about it. He could have done, such was the late nature of the disappointment. Instead, he looked around for a credible way of getting back on the grid. A reserve slot at Nissan perhaps fits that bill nicely, although first comes a chance to stake a claim at Berlin Tempelhof this weekend.
The Brazilian has long since known that he would be in the car after regular pilot Norman Nato notified the team last autumn that his deal to race for Cadillac Hertz Team JOTA would take priority. That was simply because he signed there first last summer before a surprise return to Nissan was confirmed to him in September 2024.
Sette Camara has tested briefly for Nissan at a private test session in Spain earlier this year. But he has attended several EPrixs and also spent numerous days recently in the simulator. But what is he capable of as he returns to Formula E this weekend? He tells us in his own words……..
The Reality of Jumping In
“It’s my first time in Formula E where you join a season and everyone is in that flow state of knowing their engineers, knowing their car, etc.
“From lap one in FP1, every little mistake you have to quickly correct and quickly assess. And there’s a few areas where I feel like I’m a bit vulnerable. So first of all, I don’t have much knowledge of the car. I’ve done a lot of work in the simulator, but the simulator is exactly that, a simulation. It’s not reality.
“Now for the first time since a long time, Formula E is a traditional motorsports thing where a brand-new set of tyres is the quickest. There will be a peak. It will wear out quickly, especially in Berlin, because that track is so abrasive. And quirky And I have never experienced a new tyre of this new generation, the wear, the four-wheel drive, and several things.
“I will do my best in slightly tricky circumstances. But I will be pushing super hard as always.”
Being a Sponge as a Reserve
“During the race weekend when you go as reserve, you can take bits and pieces, but it’s so sparse the information that you cannot trust because you are not actually driving. And also, let’s say, it’s also comments from the experience of another person. So, you’re hearing a debrief and the driver says it’s ‘oversteer in that corner’ but for you it could be a slightly different experience.
“You’ve got to drive it and feel it in order that you have your own assessment of what it is or isn’t. So, you need track time. But I would say out of all the things I’ve done with Nissan, that includes test day, simulator work, some of it is test development, some of it is race preparation and the fourth item is being a reserve on track. The most valuable is the preparation on the simulator. Race prep on the simulator actually.
A Big Chance?
“This could be a big shot because let’s be real, if you sit in a competitive car and you do well, you could raise interest because in Formula E and in motorsports in general, sometimes you almost need to make it obvious that ‘okay I can perform and have potential.’
“For example, if you show potential at ERT but you are P15, that’s not enough. People really need to see you up there and then they’re like ‘oh I want that driver, he’s done well’. So, I know that opportunity is there and that puts pressure on, but I hope I can face it.
“It’s two races, hopefully I can do well, but I need to respect myself and just make the most of it. I hope I can have a calm of mind and take it that way. I think that’s the best approach.”
Working at Nissan
“I’ve really grown to like the people in Nissan. I really like the culture, they are hard workers, they are fighting to get the results and people are free to say what they want. I really like that, and I think it would feel almost as good if I helped the team result than if I got my own individual result.
“The way things are in Formula E and how professional it is, similar to F1, with the team standings, the prize pool, other competitors. Nissan themselves value drivers, they compare drivers, ad they will also look if you’re contributing to the team result, if you’re a team player and so on.
“I think no matter how I take it, as long as I do well, if I go for the team result or my own individual result, as long as I contribute, I think that would be valid and I hope I can do it. It would really mean a lot to me if I can give something back to them for this opportunity. It’s natural in life, right? Somebody gives you an opportunity, we want to make the person feel good that they give you this opportunity, it’s natural and it’s not different with me.”
