NIO 333 FE Team Announces Drivers for Formula E: ACCELERATE

Oxford/Shanghai, 27 January 2021: The ABB FIA Formula E World Championship has officially launched Formula E: ACCELERATE – a high-stakes, ultra-competitive eSports series bringing together the best E-racers in the world to battle it out in electric sim racing. 24 drivers shall be competing in unique formats with never-been-seen-before elements in the ultimate electric sim experience and for a minimum prize fund of 100,000 Euros.

The drivers who shall be representing the NIO 333 FE Team in Formula E: ACCELERATE are:

Jiayu Zhang, NIO 333 FE car #8

Jiayu was born in 1990 in Shanghai, China. He is a professional karting and touring car driver who came third in both the 2014-2015 CKC Chengdu and 2015-2016 CKC seasons. Jiayu was Champion of the 2020 F1 eSports Championship Professional League and assisted racing driver Ma Qinghua when he participated in the Formula E "Race at Home" Challenge with NIO 333 last season. Jiayu is currently working with the BT eSports Racing Team as a race engineer and coach alongside a similar position at the Nova Racing School. He has nurtured many junior racing talents up through the ranks to become professional drivers.

For new team management and operational organisation, Shanghai Lisheng Racing, it was a chance to incorporate the familiarity of NIO (who continue as Primary Partner) brand identity with the striking red from the 333 Racing brand. In China red represents fire, and is the national colour symbolizing happiness, beauty, vitality, good luck, success and good fortune.

In the team’s joint venture toward the Championship’s goal of “racing for a cleaner future – faster”, the material used to adorn the NIO FE 001 cars is 3M wrapping grade PVC free vinyl - the most environmentally friendly wrapping film currently available.

Since the Season 6 finale in Berlin, August 2020, the team has successfully completed nine full days and 2828.4kms of private testing on tracks around the UK. Following this week’s official test, round 1 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship will get underway in Santiago, Chile, with a double-header event on 16th / 17th January 2021.

Risto Kappet, NIO 333 FE car #88

Risto was born in Estonia in 1994. He attended a local karting school before becoming an instructor at the age of 15. He participated in four Rotax Max national events before entering the world of online racing with rFactor 1 in 2009. Since 2019, Risto has competed as a full-time sim racer and has won four championship titles, ranking him amongst some of the best in global eSports. In May 2020 he joined the ‘R8G eSports’ team, run by racing driver Romain Grosjean, and was runner-up in 2021 Sim Formula Europe. In his daily life Risto cycles all year round, is actively trying to uphold a waste-free lifestyle and takes a keen interest in learning about renewable energies. Formula E’s achievement of becoming the first sport with a net zero carbon footprint since inception is something that also drew Risto to accept the invitation by the series to participate in Formula E: ACCELERATE.

NIO 333 FE Team racing drivers Oliver Turvey and Tom Blomqvist shall also be participating in one round of the new Formula E eSports series.

Tomorrow, at 19:00 GMT, Jiayu and Risto will participate in the first round of Formula E: ACCELERATE, which will be aired on Formula E Twitch, Facebook and You Tube channels. Over six 25-minute races, the NIO 333 duo will go up against 22 other racers representing all 12 current Formula E teams on rFactor 2 and inch-perfect digital recreations of real Formula E circuits. They will have to face the challenge of mastering energy management and ATTACK MODE, translating the challenges of real-life Formula E all-electric racing into the virtual world more accurately than ever before.