After the “Rookie Test” held in Berlin, Formula E teams will have another opportunity to showcase new talent when the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship comes to Rome on July 15-16.
The official rookie test for Season 9 took place on Monday, April 24 after the race weekend of the double header rounds 7 and 8 in Berlin, where a large number of young drivers were evident testing Formula E and GEN3 for the first time.
Some of those racing rookies will undoubtedly return and present some new faces together to take part in Free Practice 0, ahead of the Italian double header.
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Who is Eligible to Participate?
Teams can field someone who has sampled Formula E machinery before. The idea is to give the best young talent a pathway to compete at the top of the motorsport ladder with a taste of Formula E and the opportunity to impress the teams.
The choices the teams have submitted to Formula E and the FIA will be revealed in the run-up to Rome, with Envision Racing already signaling that Jack Aitken will be back in the car following his departure in Berlin.
To be eligible to take part in the session, drivers must hold a full e-license or a free practice e-license. Racers cannot have participated in a Formula E race weekend, so there is no chance they will qualify for the session if they already have race experience from a previous E-Prix.
They must also complete a specific training session on electrical safety, understand the characteristics of the all-electric Formula E car and know the technical and sporting regulations for the championship.
From the various test days granted to teams throughout the season, a maximum of two of the six official days can be reserved for rookie drivers. They may only participate in up to two official test days.
Names to Watch
FIA Formula 2 Champion Felipe Drugóvich (Maserati MSG Racing) set the fastest time in the Berlin rookie test; within the fastest Julius Baer Pole Position effort of the SABIC Berlin E-Prix weekend, and just two tenths of a second of the best time set in practice by Maximilian Guenther – in the same car.
The afternoon race proved quicker than the morning race with Drugóvic, Victor Martins (Nissan), Zane Maloney (Avalanche Andretti) and Luca Ghiotto (Nissan) all inside Sheldon van der Linde‘s benchmark from the opening session.
Drugóvic is the incumbent F2 champion and his lap of 1m05.509, set towards the end of the second three-hour session of the day, was just 0.208s slower than the fastest time of the SABIC Berlin E-Prix weekend set by Maximilian Guenther.
