NextEV expects its season two drivers, Nelson Piquet and Oliver Turvey, to return for the team’s 2016-17 Formula E campaign, with a reworked version of its twin-motor powertrain configuration expected to perform far more strongly. Technical partner Campos has been phased out as the team moves towards being a completely self-sufficient unit.

The squad originally named Team China Racing endured a tough second season as difficulties with its twin-motor powertrain (namely, significant additional weight and problems with the exoskeleton-like powertrain support structure) meant that any title defence by Nelson Piquet, the first ever Formula E drivers’ champion, was over before it begun. Collectively, Piquet and Turvey scored just 19 points over the season, with a best finish of sixth in Beijing.

Despite the lacklustre season, both drivers seem set to stay for season three.

Piquet was already known to have a provisional contract with NextEV for next season and told Current E during the 2016 London race weekend that he was “close to getting something done” with the team but was “just getting a few things checked first”. Likely, that meant getting a clear idea of how the season three powertrain perform as well as negotiating a strong package (other paddock sources told us “he was offered way too much money to say no”).

NextEV boss Martin Leach confirmed to Current E last week that the team has an “agreement in principle” with both drivers. “The physical contracts are not signed yet, but I don’t anticipate that being a problem,” he said. “So we’re just going through some of the minutiae at the moment. I’m really happy with Oliver and Nelson: my plan is to stay with Nelson and Oliver if I can.”

Leach spoke of a warm relationship between his drivers, though he wouldn’t mind some sort of rivalry appearing. “Nelson’s a great racer’s racer and Oliver is a great thinking racer,” he said. “They work really well together. They like each other. If we’re super competitive this year, maybe that great relationship will evolve more into a Nico-Lewis [Rosberg and Hamilton, Mercedes F1 drivers] type relationship. Who knows! That’s the way if you’re fighting for a championship. But so far so good.”

The two drivers had very different reactions to their season’s difficulties, however. Piquet, fresh from vanquishing the field in the first season against all odds, did not hide his dismay at the situation he found himself in. He’s proved to be a character who wears his emotions rather publicly, for better or for worse. Turvey, on the other hand, impressed many with his quiet determination and industrious approach, and dragged many results out of the car that just did not seem possible.

Leach didn’t shy away from the team’s issues when asked. “I think the pattern was fairly clear at the start of the season,” he admitted. “Unfortunately a lot of the decisions that had been taken and were locked in before we even came on board. In fact some of them even before our company existed. It meant we started the season with a powertrain which was demonstrably overweight. The biggest challenge I had was to keep everybody motivated because it was clear that that was a big problem. But I am glad that season two is behind us.”

Some progress was made over the course of the season with the cars seemingly more competitive by London. “I decided we were going to leave no stone unturned,” Leach went on. “We were going to look at everything and do everything we can to reduce the mass of the things that we could control within the regulations, and to work on different aspects including car setup, car control, that sort of thing. I think we made a lot of progress. We managed to take I think nearly 18 kilos out of the car, so we chipped into the weight problem. We did qualify in the top 10 for the last several races.”

NextEV completed its fourth test run with its season three powertrain in the past few days, with Piquet getting behind the wheel for the first time. Testing had previously been conducted by Turvey and European Le Mans Series driver Ben Hanley, who had been drafted in to replace Turvey in Berlin when it had looked like Turvey would miss the race due to a clash with another series. Nevertheless, Hanley remains part of NextEV’s plans.

“We put Ben in our simulator and in the test car as well,” Leach confirmed. “We were testing back-to-back with London. We obviously had to bring Oliver back to race in London, so Ben carried on with the testing.”

Leach believes that Turvey and Piquet form one of the strongest driver line-ups on the grid. “Nelson’s a world champion,” he said. “Nelson’s pace is beyond question. You also saw more sparks of genius from Oliver at London.”

While the contracts may not yet be signed, driver continuity seems to be the order of the day throughout the pitlane. Renault, ABT and Dragon have all retained their existing line-ups for season three, while Stephane Sarrazin, Robin Frijns and Sam Bird will also continue with Venturi, Andretti and DS Virgin respectively.

So far, only one driver has switched teams: Jean-Eric Vergne, who departed Virgin after London for a move to the new Techeetah operation that has taken over Team Aguri (he’s been replaced by Jose Maria Lopez). Little is known about the new owners or what will happen to the team, which continues to be run for now by Mark Preston and which is said to be purchasing a Renault powertrain.

Antonio Felix da Costa is widely tipped to take Simona de Silvestro’s seat at Andretti, leaving question marks hanging over Venturi’s second drive and both seats at Mahindra and the incoming Jaguar team.

Consistency in the driver line-up can only be a good thing for the sport. Season one saw a lot of very short stays, with teams keen to get the most bang for their buck and, in some cases, giving drivers just a single race in which to get up to speed. With so little running time on a Formula E race day, however, a longer campaign will yield better results for teams and drivers, while the longer view of an entire season rather than a single race helps settle drivers and prevent unnecessary fireworks as drivers seek to do too much too soon (otherwise known as silly moves and costly crashes). Continuity also helps the teams build their fanbase, with the drivers by and large far better known than their teams this early in the sport.

As the drivers settle in to the technology and racing style, the teams all become more closely competitive and, although the second season race winners largely reflected those of the first, there are several drivers who are just a few seconds of luck away from their maiden win too.

Strap in: whomever you support, season three is shaping up to be an epic.

Luke Smith