Nissan Formula E Team vs Manchester City: How does data analysis differ between sports teams?

Formula E and Premier League outfits compare how data is used in their respective fields

The use and analysis of data in sports is not a new phenomenon. Even in the early days of sports, teams, coaches and players were using basic numbers and probabilities to give them a competitive edge.

As technology has developed, these findings have been used more and more, with data and sports now more intertwined than ever before. Major League Baseball teams use the ‘Moneyball’ approach first pioneered in the early 2000s to sign players, while teams in cricket’s T20 competitions have long been using advanced matchups to decide the make-up and order of their batters and bowlers. Motorsport has especially been at the forefront of data usage, with sensors on cars sending a huge amount of feedback to teams.

However, not all sports analyze and use data in the same way. Formula E and football could hardly be further apart as sports, yet both Cristina Mañas Fernández, Head of Performance and Simulation at Nissan Formula E Team and Simon Timson, Performance Director at Manchester City Football Club, spend their days dealing with data. The pair discussed how they use data in their roles, and how it plays a factor in the decisions made at the top level of their disciplines.

“Data is really important for us for a number of reasons,” stated Timson, who has been with the eight-time Premier League champions since July 2020. “It provides unique insights into all elements of our work, including talent identification, recruitment decision making, tactical plans, injury prevention and much more. Having the right data, both in real time and retrospectively, helps to reduce uncertainty and gives people more confidence in the choices they make on a daily basis.”

The process in similar in Formula E, although there is one obvious difference between the sports; the car. “For us it’s fundamentally the same,” responded Mañas. “However, we have the athlete, the driver, but then also this complicated piece of machinery in the form of the car. The only way we can understand how it works and what we need to improve on is through the data. We collect data every time the car goes on track, so it is imperative for the engineers to study this to be able to know what to do in the next session.”

One major difference between the two sports is the athletes available to each team. While Nissan Formula E Team has Oliver Rowland and Norman Nato as its race drivers for the 2024/25 campaign, Manchester City can pick from a much larger squad of players, all with their own strengths . This gives the football club much more flexibility from matchday to matchday, where they can select the team based on multiple factors, including form, injuries, opposition and much more.

This has led Manchester City to create profiles for every position and role within the team, displaying the unique technical demands of each, which gives the coaches additional insights to consider when making their plans.

“We can quantify multiple concepts within our game model and create positional profiles.” said Timson. “The profiles can be used to support our scouting processes when evaluating future opponents or looking at potential player aquisitions. Sometimes it’s difficult because the players we’re scouting are often in overseas leagues competing with opposition of different strengths, employing different tactics and placing unique demands on individuals, which is where the noise can come into our data.”

In Formula E, with just two drivers (plus the reserve one), things are quite different in that respect. “For us, there isn’t such a thing as a model for each driver”, said Mañas. We cannot attribute numbers to their styles. We do more qualitative work for this aspect, the race and performance engineers work specifically to understand each driver style and then focus the set-up on the direction we know will help to extract performance.

“When it comes to what we call the ‘mapping’ or the fine-tuning of the car, this is very much done with the driver’s style in mind. So while it looks like both cars are the same, this isn’t the case. We also set the car up differently when it comes to certain situations, for example if we start at the front or the back, depending on the race strategy.

With all the groundwork in place for the season ahead, focus for both then turns to each individual event, where more variances between the two sports can be found. Formula E has a concrete calendar, so the race team knows months in advance exactly how long they have between each. In football, especially in the case of Manchester City in recent years, deep runs into cup competitions can often result in fixture pile-ups, particularly in the second half of a season. While this gives Nissan Formula E Team more time to prepare, the actual processes of the two are similar.

“Our preparation for a race weekend starts about two or three weeks prior to the event,” explained Mañas. “First, we do a pre-event report, where we characterize the track and nail down exactly what we need to be quick on that particular layout. Then we have two or three days in the simulator, where the drivers and engineers work together, trying different set-up combinations and figuring out what fits best.

“After we arrive on site for the event, we use the first practice session to see if we are performing at the expected level. Because of the nature of Formula E tracks, mostly in city centers, there’s usually small differences, but every team has the same issues on this. From that point on, if the driver is comfortable then we can focus on building up to qualifying and the race.”

Timson agreed, adding: “Our process is similar in terms of the principle of planning and reviewing. I think the main difference is our data makes fewer decisions for the coaches than maybe it does for the engineers and drivers in Formula E.

“Our Performance Analysts and Football Intelligence team analyse the data and then deliver a package to the manager, Pep Guardiola. This will help him and his coaching staff think about the tactical set up and work out how the opposition matches up against our team, how to exploit their weaknesses and mitigate their strengths.  I think that’s where the data differs from football to Formula E, there’s probably less certainty and more noise in our data.”

After that, it’s over to the athletes to perform on pitch and on track, but the analysis doesn’t stop there, with real-time data often used in both sports to impact the outcome of an event.

“When we manage a race, we have lots of metrics we’re looking at and then can make decisions based off that,” said Mañas. “We use the driver to guide us towards the best changes to make, using his opinions to complement the millions of data points, and then prioritize looking into the direction he is pointing us towards. After every session, we debrief with the drivers and go through all of the metrics. Throughout the weekend, it’s more of an evolution from session to session.”

Football doesn’t have the same level of in-game data compared to Formula E, as Timson explains: “I think that’s where motor racing is ahead of purely human sports, like football. You definitely have more real-time data than we do, and your engineers are well schooled in using that information to adjust performance during an event, which I think football is in the early stages of. With the car in Formula E, it can’t talk back, but we have the advantage that a football player can tell us about their experience, what they are seeing, and feeling, it’s also deeply cultural. In general, the data only takes us so far when it comes to telling us about the performance of the team or the individual, although it is definitely advancing quickly.”

Even though football and Formula E are vastly different sports, considering the number of athletes, regularity of fixtures and use of machinery, data is crucial for both when it comes to extracting the ultimate performance. Mañas and Timson both have huge responsibilities to ensure the right data is passed on, in all stages of the year, whether that be pre-season, pre-event or during an event. Data analysis and use is here to stay in sports, and in the coming years, we can expect people like Mañas and Timson to be even more vital to their respective teams than ever before.