Nissan Formula E Team is keeping its full driver roster intact for Season 13. Sam Bird continues as reserve and development driver, Abbi Pulling stays in her rookie and simulator role, and together they complete a four-driver setup alongside race drivers Oliver Rowland and Zane Maloney.
Bird has been with Nissan since November 2025, Pulling since June 2025. Both are carrying powertrain knowledge that becomes more valuable as the team transitions from the GEN3 machinery into the new GEN4 car, which pushes standard race power from 300 kW to 450 kW and Attack Mode output to 600 kW. Pre-season testing at Circuito del Jarama, Spain runs November 16–20, and the simulator work both drivers have logged this year is the foundation for that week.
Bird’s résumé in the series is substantial. He raced in Formula E’s inaugural event in 2014 and has accumulated 27 podium finishes across his career, including 12 wins. His most recent victory came in São Paulo during Season 10, driving for a Nissan customer team. He is among a small group of drivers who have won races in all three generations of cars the series has used, which makes him a useful resource as the team calibrates a GEN4 simulator that needs to reflect systems no one has yet raced.
Pulling’s path has been different. The 2024 F1 Academy champion stepped into Formula E through the all-women’s test, then added the Miami Rookie Free Practice and the Madrid Rookie Test during the 2025/26 campaign. Alongside that program, she took her first GB3 win at Spa and added two podium finishes at Donington Park in 2026. She is building track experience on two fronts simultaneously, which is roughly the point of a rookie role structured this way.
Nissan’s investment in a four-driver structure with two non-race seats reflects how seriously the GEN4 transition is being treated. The team ended Season 12 sixth in the Teams’ Championship after a strong run from Rowland through the back half of the year, finishing the GEN3 era with momentum but not a title. The GEN4 era runs from Season 13 through Season 16, and Nissan was the first manufacturer to commit to that cycle, signing on in March 2024 ahead of the Tokyo E-Prix. The Andretti customer deal adds a second Nissan-powered entry to the grid, giving the Japanese manufacturer four cars on track and more development data flowing back into the program.
Rowland won the Drivers’ World Championship in Season 11 with four victories and seven podiums. A sixth-place Teams’ finish in Season 12 is a step back from that high point, and the GEN4 transition gives the team a reset opportunity. Bird and Pulling are the depth that makes the reset less risky: known quantities in the simulator who already understand how Nissan’s engineering and strategy sides operate.
Season 13 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship opens after Jarama testing concludes. The GEN4 car is new for everyone on the grid. Nissan at least goes in knowing who is in every seat.
Source: Nissan. Images courtesy of Nissan.
