NextEV retains Piquet Jr and Turvey as drivers this season

It was announced on Monday morning that 2015 Formula E champion Nelson Piquet Jr and Oliver Turvey have been retained by the NextEV team and seek a revival in the sport following a torrid season with a massively overweight car.

The team completed fourteen days of private testing at the Calafat Circuit in Spain in the hands of Piquet, Turvey and Ben Hanley to develop the 700R: a slimmed down version of the season two, maintaining the twin-motor layout that the team and DS Virgin used, which took the Virgin team to four pole positions last season.

NextEV sees a change in their technical staff also. Paul Fickers becomes Chief Technical Officer, having previously been Head of Vehicle Testing at Fiat, and Barry Mortimer moves from Team Aguri to become Team Manager.

Despite rumours circulating that Piquet Jr was looking to seek a future in other series such as Le Mans and the WEC after a horrid season last year, he has decided to remain with the NextEV team and is committed to helping the team get back to competitive ways this season.

“With NextEV fully committed to the Formula E programme, I believe that the team has a very strong long-term future. I am happy to be continuing to race with the team that I won the world championship with, and we are looking forward to being able to fight for victories again next season,” Piquet said.

“We have come off the back of a challenging season, but that meant we learnt a lot and we are stronger for it. I'm very happy to be racing alongside Oliver again. He's a fantastic teammate and we're working hard to achieve a strong team performance this season.”

Meanwhile, Turvey is also delighted to be remaining with the team this season and believes that both parties are committed to each other, have faith in their abilities and wants to get back to racing on the track.

“I am delighted to be able to continue racing for the NextEV Formula E Team,” said Turvey, “I would like to thank Martin Leach and the whole team for putting their faith and support in me to be part of the NextEV future.”

“The team and I have similarly high ambitions for the season ahead and we will work hard together to achieve them. I know how much effort everyone at NextEV has put in so I can't wait to start racing!”

Sarah Jones- @jonesy_laaa