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Who is Sacha Fenestraz, the Argentine driver who competes in Formula E

2023-03-25T10:37:40.075Z


He is 23 years old and was born in France, but his family moved to Córdoba when he was six months old. This year he will compete with the Nissan E Team.


Formula

E

landed for the first time this weekend in Brazil to play the

Sao Paulo E Prix

, the sixth date of the season.

And among the 22 pilots who will seek the first victory in the history of the category on Brazilian soil, there is one who runs under the French flag, but has a light blue and soft heart.

It is

Sacha Fenestraz

, who was born 23 years ago in Annecy, an alpine town in the southeast of the French country, but he is Cordovan at heart, because he spent the first years of his life in Santa Catalina, near Colonia Caroya.

For this reason, when he speaks, a little bit of a Cordovan tune leaks out that still accompanies him.

Just a little, because when he was still very young he moved to Europe to pursue his dream of making a career in international motorsport.

And after fighting it for a long time, this year he is contesting a world championship for the first time, behind the wheel of one of the

Nissan E Team

cars .

“I am very happy, it is my first season in a world championship.

And being here in Sao Paulo makes me very happy.

I am French, but also very Argentine, and this is the race closest to my home, Córdoba", commented Fenestraz, a while before the start of the official activity of the date, in a talk with the press at the Nissan house. in the Sambadrome of the city of São Paulo, where a circuit specially designed for the occasion was put together.

Fenestraz with the Argentine shirt in Cape Town.

He was born in France, but he has a light blue and white heart.

Instagram photo @sachafenestraz

Fenestraz -the second driver from our country to compete in this category- has motorsport in his blood.

His mother

From him Stephanie

, French, ran the

Dakar

twice as a navigator.

Following in his footsteps, Sacha began driving when he was very young in Córdoba, where his family had settled when he was just six months old.

There he began the story of him behind the wheel.

He started, like the vast majority of boys who dream of being a professional driver,

on board a go-kart, when he was just four years old

.

His passion for this sport grew very fast and at 12 he decided to take an important leap: leave the comfort of his family home and return to Europe, alone, because he felt that in Argentina he was not going to have the same opportunities to grow. .

His decision proved to be the correct one, although in his first years in the old continent, he did not have a very good time.

"There were many beautiful moments, but also many ugly moments," he admits after consulting

Clarín

about his beginnings.

“When I went to Europe, I was almost 12 years old, I went to a town of 200 inhabitants, where there was almost nothing, and I almost never saw my family.

I spent two and a half years living with a family from a karting team and it was very difficult.

Today I would not do it again.

If I had a child, I wouldn't have it done either.

They were very difficult years, which I would not like to repeat.

But what came after in my career was very good.

There were more good moments than ugly.

And today I am sitting here, fulfilling a dream.

To reach this dream, we had to go through hard times, nothing is easy.

So I'm not complaining."

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sacha Fenestraz (@sachafenestraz)

The sports career that followed those difficult years brought many joys.

Sacha raced in 2015 in

Formula 4

on the Old Continent.

In 2017 he was the European Formula Renault

champion

, in a season in which he won seven races and was on the podium another ten times, in 23 disputed dates.

Two years later, his talent caught the attention of the Japanese

B-Max Racing

team , which hired him to race in

Formula 3

in that country.

And in his first year there, he yelled champion.

His good performances allowed him to run in the

Japanese Super GT

, one of the most important grand tourer categories in the world, and even test a

Formula 1 car.

in an exhibition.

And they ended up

opening the doors of

Formula E.

His first experience in the world's most important electric car category came in 2021, the season in which he was a reserve driver for Jaguar.

Although only this year, he joined a team as a starting driver, the Nissan E Team

Fenestraz made his way through dedication in the world of motorsports, with the help of a very special adviser,

José María López

, who was the first Argentine to race in the FE.

Pechito

, who for a time was his brother-in-law and with whom he continues to have a great friendship today, was always present for Sacha.

"He's a great friend.

I started going to Formula E when I was about 16 years old and Pecho was already racing

. I would always see him and think

'How nice it would be to be there!'

, because he is one of the most important world championships. I would go see him and see how he worked, how he organized things. He always helped me, "recalled the Franco-Argentine with a smile.

"He gave me a lot of advice, but I think two were very important," continued the man who has

Ayrton Senna

and

Juan Manuel Fangio

as idols.

"One, which he told me even before I got to this category, was to always respect street circuits, because the margins of error are very small, they are dangerous circuits and very 'dirty' outside the racing line. The other one, one of the wisest things that he gave me, that in a weekend you have to build, not go out and try to set a record in the first lap, because that is where you will end up making a mistake and hitting a wall. play the hero at the beginning of the weekend, because the most important thing is the race".

Fenestraz runs with the French flag, but his heart is still in our country, even though he has been driving around the world for years.

Although the light blue and soft does not appear next to his name in the race rankings today, he - who dreams of one day being able to run with a license from our country - is already "the Argentine ambassador" in Formula E.

The new challenge of Formula E

Fenestraz - who is 18th in the championship with seven points, far behind the leader, the German Pascal Wehrlein (Porsche, 80) - started his career in this category with good performance.

At the end of February, in the fifth round of the year in

Cape Town

, he took pole position, an impressive achievement for a "rookie", who has raced all his life in cars with gasoline engines and has only a handful of competitions. with electric cars.

In the race, he came close to a podium finish, but a crash after a collision with New Zealander

Nick Cassidy

on the last lap left him empty-handed.

That did not discourage him, because he knows that he still has a long way to go.

Fenestraz with the trophy he was awarded for taking pole position in Cape Town, the first of his FE career.

Photo Press Nissa

"I come from a totally different world and this year is completely new for me. I have raced my entire sports career in cars with thermal engines, with gasoline, smell, noise... This is a heavier car than the one I drove before and it has less grip , you're more in the air. You're fighting more in the race. Luckily, this year the cars are all new (

Note: This year the third generation of cars was introduced

), so that made things easier for me," he reflected. who this Friday set the second best time of the first free practice (1m12s453), behind the Frenchman. 

And he continued: "It took me a bit of time to adjust, I would tell you that I still don't feel like I'm driving it 100 percent. In Cape Town I took pole position, but I didn't feel like I was 100 percent out of the car. It's a car that doesn't forgive and, as we race on urban circuits, the margin of error is very minimal".

How does it get along with urban layouts?

"I've always loved them. Since I started my career, I've always done relatively well on all the urban circuits, like Macau or Monaco. I think one of the reasons why I'm here is because Nissan saw what I did in Macau, "It is one of the most difficult circuits in the world, and that gave them interest in signing me this season, because they saw that the circuits are going well for me. I still have a lot to learn, but little by little we are progressing," he said. 


Source: clarin

All news articles on 2023-03-25

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