Nato strives to see silver lining after losing apparent Miami win

To lose a race win through no fault of your own would be crushing for many, but Norman Nato left Homestead-Miami Speedway in a positive mood despite being dealt the cruelest of hands.

The Nissan driver won the Miami E-Prix on the road, having started from pole, then holding off reigning series champion Pascal Wehrlein in an intense charge to the finish line. But a late-race red flag meant that he wasn’t left with enough time to completely use his Attack Mode.

Drivers must use Attack Mode – which gives them an additional 50kW of power, plus temporary four-wheel-drive – for a total of eight minutes in the race, split into two uses for two and six minutes, or two four-minute uses.

Nato got to the red flag with six minutes remaining, but with only four laps run after the restart he was one of several drivers left with not enough time to use up his full allocation, and failure to do that results in a penalty. He was hit with a 10-second time penalty post-race, dropping him from first to sixth in the final finishing order.

It was a win that slipped away through circumstances out of his control, but instead of getting hung up on that, Nato was upbeat and smiling after getting out of the car.

“I’m really happy — I’m not down at all,” he told RACER. “Of course it’s always frustrating to cross the line in P1, to do the job, to win the race then finish in P6, but pole position, we did the job in the end and we crossed the line in P1. It’s not like we made a mistake or anything. With everything on track, it’s pretty clear we won the race, but that’s what it is.”

Nato’s season is far cry from that of teammate Oliver Rowland. While Rowland has won twice and leads the championship, Nato is 17th in the points, with his pole and race result in Miami being the only points he’s scored all season. The standings might paint a bleak picture, but Nato says there’s more to the story than just the numbers on the board.

“The problem is people are only looking at points on the board and if you compare to Oliver it’s a really bad season, but if you go into detail — like look at practice, the gap in qualifying, and what’s happened in terms of penalties — then you’ll understand,” he said. Today is another example. I should have won the race, I should have taken 25 points, instead I took eight. That’s what it is.

“Since the beginning of the season, pace-wise, on one lap I’m fast. I went straight in Duels in Sao Paulo, but in races I’ve already had four penalties over five races and not for driving mistakes. In this case it’s costing me a lot of points, and that’s what it is.

“I’m really proud of what we’ve done — fast car, good strategy, good communication. Of course it’s my second year with Nissan but I have a new team around me in terms of race engineer, performance engineer and with this you need a bit of time in terms of communication and for them to know what you need. And you’re fighting really fast guys who’ve been on the same team for the last two or three years, so in some races you’re obviously not going to do as good as what they do, but today we did. It was a big progression.

“The only day, honestly, where we have been struggling this season was Day 2 in Jeddah where we didn’t do the strategy, I made some mistakes in driving. Otherwise in the races we’ve had penalties and not scored points – Sao Paulo I took the lead and got a penalty, came back and took P6 and got a penalty, and today I was P1 but it’s still P6 with a 10-second penalty, but we showed how good we are.”

The red flag situation left five drivers – including Nato – with post-race penalties for not completing their eight minutes of Attack Mode. When asked if the bizarre situation should lead to a rethink of Attack Mode rules surrounding red flags, Nato offered a balanced view, saying that it’s something you’d only want to change if it affects you, whereas if it doesn’t you could stand to benefit. But improving understanding for those watching is something that ought to be done regardless.

“At the end, if you are on the right side of the strategy, you are happy this kind of rule is made, when you are not you want to change it,” he said. “Maybe there is a compromise to find, more for the understanding of the people on TV and the show for you guys. On track you kind of know straight away what’s happening, but on TV… I’ve got so many texts from people that think I won the race, which in the end is not really the case.

“It’s true that it has to be mandatory to take the Attack, but if you can’t because of a red flag, for example, the penalty less. But I don’t know, I’m not doing the rules. Maybe next race I could be winning the race because of the rule and I’m not going to complain.”

Lost win aside, his performance in Miami – and leading up to it – has left Nato encouraged about what can be achieved in the remainder of the season.

“I’m really optimistic,” he said. “I’m not fighting for the championship and I knew that, to be honest, and in the end I did a really good job.

“Can’t wait to be in Monaco, we normally have a really fast car there.”