A night of firsts at Formula E‘s global launch in London saw the e.dams team renamed and their drivers announced ahead of the season opener in Beijing.
e.dams, founded by Alain Prost and Jean-Paul Driot, will now be known as e.dams-Renault after Renault became the title sponsor of the team.
Renault are a large component and advocate of the fully-electric championship, after overseeing the completion and build of the Renault-Spark car that will be used by all ten teams.
“Jean-Paul Driot and I are delighted to be associated with Renault in this new adventure,” said Prost. “The choice of Renault as a major partner was a natural step because of the exceptional record it has carved out in motorsport, as well as its unique expertise in the field of electric vehicles. Personally, I am thrilled by the idea of working with Renault on such an ambitious project again and by the prospect of writing a new chapter of our association.”
The four time world champion added: “We are actively preparing for the first races of the season. This week’s test at Donington Park is the next step in that process and it will be followed by a busy summer in order to be ready and competitive for the first ePrix in Beijing, on September 13.”
The testing will now be joined by the team’s drivers, Nico Prost and Sebastien Buemi, who were announced at the global launch as arguably the biggest news of the night.
Both are drivers with experience in Formula One as Prost is currently the test driver for the Lotus F1 team, while Buemi raced for Toro Rosso between 2009 and 2011.
Since then, Buemi has raced for Toyota Racing, and recently competed at Le Mans for the Japanese team. Prost also competed at Le Mans for the Rebellion Racing team.
In Formula E, Prost’s joining of the series sees a continuation of the “Prost vs Senna” battle, as Ayrton Senna‘s nephew Bruno Senna will race for Mahindra Racing against Alain Prost’s son, Nico.