In this interview I speak to Nissan Formula E Team Principal, Tommaso Volpe. Formula E is the world’s sole all-electric single-seater FIA World Championship and provides an elite motorsports platform for automotive manufacturers to accelerate EV innovation while delivering races in the heart of some of the world’s most iconic cities. Nissan lead one of the world’s most successful Formula E teams. They have 28 billion road kilometres of EV customer data combined with some of the most advanced automotive innovation in the world. Their latest GEN3 Evo race car performance is just astonishing with 0-60mph being achieved in just 1.82 seconds (30% faster than current F1 cars).
In this interview, we discuss the role Formula E plays in the motorsport ecosystem, why manufactures are getting involved in this racing series and what it takes to compete and win in one of the most competitive and high-performance sports on the planet.
Q: How does Formula E fit into the motorsport ecosystem?
[Tommaso Volpe]: For many years, motorsport resembled a pyramid—a well-established, widely recognized structure with Formula 1 at its pinnacle. At the top, you have all the prototype categories; as you move down, the focus shifts toward more production-based series, with road cars forming the base. This base, where technology and product innovation originate, ultimately feeds the pyramid upward to its peak.
When Formula E emerged, it occupied a completely different position. On one hand, you could argue that Formula E sits at the top of the pyramid for full electric powertrains, being the only world championship featuring a full electric prototype. In that sense, it represents the pinnacle. On the other hand, Formula E’s race format has always incorporated elements that are atypical for traditional motorsport, infusing the competition with an entertainment factor that sets it apart.
As a result, Formula E has attracted a more diverse audience. In fact, roughly half of its followers come not from the traditional motorsport community, but from those interested in technology, electrification, sustainability, and general entertainment. Because it did not evolve as a natural progression—like moving from GT to Formula 4, Formula 3, or Formula 2 as a ladder to Formula 1—it’s difficult to pinpoint its exact position within the traditional motorsport hierarchy. It remains somewhat set apart, and only in recent years has it begun to be recognized as established motorsport by the broader community.
Q: What is the business case for a manufacturer to be involved with Formula E?
[Tommaso Volpe]: This is the conversation you typically have with your company’s CFO—to convince him of the value. To revisit the initial question, one key factor that sets Formula E apart—not from all motorsport, but particularly from pinnacle series—is its direct relevance to the core business in terms of the intellectual property and R&D generated during the car’s development. Of course, the business case still ties back to branding and promotion, offering an exciting way to engage with your customer base and audience through race events that activate your market, so it remains true to motorsport.
However, what is especially compelling for us at Nissan with Formula E is that developing these cars generates a wealth of technical insights that benefit the future of electric vehicles—and vice versa. We transfer a significant amount of Nissan’s pioneering know-how in electrification into the development of the Formula E car. Although traditional analogies in motorsport—such as likening a tractor evolving into a truck—are common, I believe such comparisons have never been as accurate as they are in Formula E. The flexibility inherent in electrification technology allows for a robust exchange of learnings between the sport and our core business.
For instance, our new car launched in season 11 features hardware design improvements and solutions that Nissan has already tested within our core operations. While we may not yet be producing a super high-performance car, our focus is all about achieving maximum efficiency in powertrain design. This emphasis on efficiency makes the sport incredibly relevant from an R&D perspective and integral to developing electric road cars.
Q: What are the gaps between vehicles and teams in Formula E?
[Tommaso Volpe]: Actually, our performance gap in terms of pure on-track output can sometimes be greater than what you see in Formula 1. However, overall, the on-track times in Formula E tend to be much closer. In Formula 1, teams can extract performance from many aspects of the car—not only the powertrain but also significant gains from aerodynamics, chassis development, and more. In contrast, Formula E features identical bodywork for every team. As a result, our performance is driven primarily by the powertrain and its efficiency, as well as by how the car’s dynamics are managed through its control systems.
Of course, the driver and team play crucial roles, but when focusing on the car itself, these are the two main areas of differentiation. Since we cannot gain an advantage through aerodynamics, the window for differentiating ourselves from other teams is much smaller. Consequently, on-track performances are extremely close, which means that achieving those famous marginal gains requires even more sophisticated engineering efforts. I believe that in powertrain development, control system software, and energy management, we truly operate at the level needed to be a winning manufacturer.
Q: How do you create the right leadership style for a high performance team?
[Tommaso Volpe]: A lot of patience is required. First of all, this is something every leader will say, and it’s absolutely true. I believe one of the most important skills you need is the ability to recognize the right people to work with. Without a team you can trust to make things happen, it’s physically impossible to manage all the different aspects of your job—a leader is only the tip of the iceberg. So, choosing the right people is the most important thing I focus on in my role.
Additionally, creating a vision that inspires, if not everyone, then at least the majority of your team is crucial. It would be unrealistic to expect every single person to be on board and excited about every plan you put in place.
Drawing from my background in the corporate world before transitioning to motorsport, I found that my ability to appreciate diversity in all its forms—working with people from different backgrounds, different factions, and various ways of working—was key to fitting into the motorsport environment. I learned this when I joined Nissan Corporation 10 years ago, an organization known for its diversity and global reach. At Nissan, you work with people from all over the world, which isn’t just about being global; it’s about collaborating with individuals from every corner of the globe.
This experience with diversity prepared me for another kind of challenge when I had to lead a sporting company, where the core business is racing. In many ways, it was an exercise I had practiced before: learning how to work with people who approach things differently, come from diverse backgrounds, or see the world in a different light. You need to adapt if you want to make it work.
Q: How do you adapt to the pace and approach of multiple international stakeholders with different business cultures?
[Tommaso Volpe]: One of the things I love most about my job is the diversity in the pace of work across the organization. It might sound strange, but I truly enjoy being with people from different parts of the world and working with individuals who operate on completely different rhythms.
For example, the racing team I lead is a French company, yet it is consolidated under Nissan Global rather than Nissan Europe. This means that all governance is managed by Nissan Global in Japan. They’ve established a connection between the local culture and a highly structured, global decision-making process—an approach typical of one of the world’s largest manufacturers. Meanwhile, the rest of the team often needs to make decisions within days or even hours. In this role, I must adapt to merge these two different paces.
I believe one key to managing this challenge is filtering information and decisions in both directions to keep things moving. This ties back to the importance of having a clear vision. Whether you’re building a new division or launching a project, every decision—from the large, long-term ones to the small, rapid ones—needs to fit within that vision. By aligning day-to-day decisions with our five-year plan, everyone understands why we need to act now, as each decision contributes to the bigger picture and prepares us for future steps.
Ultimately, you have to maintain a long-term view—like aiming to be where you want to be in five years—while navigating the varied speeds of decision-making, much like moving along a river with a steady current in the middle and turbulence along the sides. For me, this approach of directing both fast and slow processes toward our overarching goal is the only way I can effectively manage and integrate everything. I’m sure others have their own methods, but this is how I bring it all together.
Q: As a leader, how do you approach the different nature(s) of risk in this sport?
[Tommaso Volpe]: It’s true that when you’re at the races, your mindset shifts. All the planning, preparation, and corporate work happen in the office beforehand. But when you arrive at the race, you enter a kind of bubble for two to three days where you must manage risks—and everything else—in a different way. The entire team, including the leader, adapts to this change.
I believe the most important thing during races is focus. You need to be even more intensely focused throughout the race weekend, which helps minimize risks because a focused team is better at spotting potential issues without distractions.
For example, there are topics and even difficult conversations that I would normally address in the office, but I deliberately keep those away from race weekends. If a conflict arises, I simply halt it and say, “We’ll have a meeting when we return to the office.” At the races, the secret is ensuring that everyone is focused. While focus is important in the office too, during a race, it becomes the one essential requirement for every single person involved.
Q: How do you deal with the wins and the losses as a team?
[Tommaso Volpe]: Well, we’re all human, so it’s hard to be perfect, and I’ll admit that sometimes when we win, I tend to lose control for a moment! What really matters, though, is keeping the season’s objective at the forefront and reminding everyone about it. Whether we finish a weekend poorly or celebrate a win, we must always refocus on our plan.
Take our first race weekend this season as an example. We showed a potentially strong performance but ended up with zero points due to a technical infringement and some significant mistakes in the garage. It was incredibly frustrating. However, we regrouped at the end of the race and said, “Okay, guys, it went wrong for these reasons.” From the very first day back at the office, we focused on addressing these issues because we have 16 races to achieve our objective.
Even when we win, we regroup. We did this at the factory by reiterating that the season’s objective remains unchanged. It’s not like once we hit our target, everything is perfect. You need to constantly remind everyone, “What is the objective of the season?” Whether or not we had a good weekend, that objective stays the same. We reset everyone’s focus on the fact that even if we missed our plans this weekend, we have all the necessary ingredients—talent, technology, drivers, and organization—to reach our season goal.
Q: How do drivers build mental & physical resilience, and what can we learn from them?
[Tommaso Volpe]: Yeah, on some levels we might be a little less challenging than other motorsports when it comes to G-forces, but in other aspects, we can be more challenging. The complexity of managing a race—balancing energy management and executing tactics like attack mode—adds a unique layer. Additionally, the way we handle our car from start to finish is quite different from other motorsports. I believe the level of complexity a driver must manage by the end of the race is probably higher than in many other disciplines. So, while some areas might be less physically demanding, there’s a level of strategic complexity during the race that you don’t see elsewhere.
In answer to your question, it’s true that when you watch drivers, you sometimes wonder how they manage to perform at that level. Most of them start very young, progressing step by step to learn how to manage multiple demands—being physically fit, staying focused, and ignoring the inherent risks. They do so in a healthy way; they simply don’t dwell on the dangers, whereas most of us would constantly be preoccupied with them if we were in a car at those speeds, surrounded by competitors eager to overtake.
It’s a long process, and it’s hard to say what everyday people can extract from watching drivers. But if I had to pick one quality to learn from them, it would be discipline. Like any other athlete, a driver must be disciplined in their preparation, continuously learning and adapting—even if they’re a top-tier, successful driver. The sport is inherently technological, and as technology evolves, there’s always something new to learn about managing the car. This constant challenge keeps you on the edge.
So, for me, discipline is probably the one thing I’d try to learn from a driver, because the other qualities come from a career that’s so different from ours that they’re hard to replicate. Of course, being physically fit is important for everyone, but universally, I believe discipline—and resilience, as you mentioned—are the key takeaways. After all, in a career filled with many losses and wins, a loss is just a loss.
Q: What has been the wider impact of Formula E?
[Tommaso Volpe]: Let’s start with your first question. Formula E has been positioned differently right from its inception. When it was founded, the goal wasn’t just to create another motorsport series—it was to build one that was strongly connected to the transformation of mobility, electrification, and the pursuit of sustainability. Electrification is at the heart of the sport because it’s the technology we use for racing, while sustainability is a core mission, with Formula E being carbon neutral from the beginning.
Because Formula E is the only motorsport that embraces these two messages so strongly, it has become almost the only choice for manufacturers looking to promote electrification and sustainability through racing. This is one of the main reasons why Nissan is involved in Formula E.
While it might be an overstatement to say that Formula E has reshaped decisions across the entire mobility industry, its commitment to mobility transformation over the years has certainly helped promote it. Many manufacturers value Formula E as an exciting platform to showcase electrification. In fact, Formula E features more car brands than any other motorsport, offering a dynamic way to change perceptions about electric technology.
In regions like Europe, electrification was once viewed as a dull technology—only used to create carbon-neutral, emission-free cars, with little connection to performance or excitement. In contrast, Formula E proves that electric motors deliver linear torque and offer the fastest acceleration in motorsport. It’s an exciting way to promote electrification as a technology that not only supports sustainability but also delivers high performance.