The 2026 Formula E rookies test line-up is confirmed and preparations are fully underway for the two sessions tomorrow. With an array of fresh faces and returning drivers, here’s what some of the rookies had to say.

Parc Femme spoke with Andretti’s duo, Freddie Slater and Callum Voisin, Envision’s Ella Lloyd and DS Penske’s Daniil Kvyat.

Freddie Slater, a British driver from Warwickshire, currently competes in Formula 3 full-time with Trident. Following a shortened sprint race and an impressive drive in the feature race, the Brit currently sits at third. Slater will complete his first test in Formula E tomorrow with Andretti as one of their rookies.

But, how did he prepare for this moment?

“Quite a lot of laps in the sim, two days in the sim.” Freddie Slater told Parc Femme in Madrid. “Trying to gain as much knowledge as possible with the team.

“This is a completely new thing for me. Trying to get as much knowledge as I could. And especially today, trying to learn from the race drivers as well. So it’s been a good experience so far.”

Lining up alongside Slater in the Andretti tomorrow is Callum Voisin, who isn’t experiencing his first rodeo in the Formula E space. Just last season, he completed rookie sessions with KIRO. 

“I got a call pretty early in the morning by, well I didn’t my managers did, by Andretti and they asked me to go on their sim. So yeah, I did a day on the sim and then yeah, it was a new track for me,” Voisin said.

“I have never driven around Jarama so I had a few things to learn and what not. Thankfully I had already driven the Porsche powertrain car before so I didn’t have to learn too many new tricks but, yeah. It all comes around fairly quickly but it’s all very welcomed.”

Racing experience vs Track experience

A driver who has driven Circuito del Jarama is Ella Lloyd who joins Envision in the rookie test. She is one of four of the women who will take to the track tomorrow. The 20-year-old Welsh driver’s journey in racing began in Ginetta Juniors, one of the traits she has in common with both Slater and Voisin. Lloyd currently competes in F1 Academy, sponsored by McLaren.

“Obviously we’ve been on the sim, prepping. I was in the sim on Thursday. I did a sim session a few weeks before that as well.” Lloyd told Parc Femme, regarding how she’s been preparing. “I’ve driven the track for the first female test so, already know the track. I’ve driven the car as well so I’m just looking to kinda get back out there.”

On the other end of the spectrum to the three feeder series drivers, we have former F1 driver Daniil Kvyat. Kvyat, who spent six years in the championship, returns to the Formula E rookie test once again. He joins DS Penske for a second year running.

When asked about how he prepared he said, “I watched a couple of videos and did one day in the sim. That’s it.”

Having experience in a large variety of racing series is beneficial and creates a well-rounded resume. It also means that, sometimes, it can be difficult to adapt to a new car.

“Well, I drove the car last year so that kind of helps.” Kvyat told Parc Femme, regarding adapting to the machinery. “I think the track is quite new but sim, I think, kind of gives you an idea of where to put your wheels, where to break and so on. It kind of helps. So, I think it will be very interesting. Interesting first few laps to try and learn the right trajectory of the track.”

What is the main thing these rookies are taking into tomorrow with what they saw during the race?

Ella Lloyd told us, “I think there’s a lot to take in, obviously conditions as well across the whole weekend has been a little bit wet.

“I think, fingers crossed it’s meant to be dry tomorrow. It’s going to be a little bit different but I think we’ll just go out there, get a feel for it and see what we can do.”

The Andretti drivers both agreed with Lloyd regarding the weather and how it reflects on what they can take from the session.

“It’s quite hard to say that because they’re still kinda crunching what they’re finding and all the numbers.” Slater said, “I think what you saw of the tyres, looks like they degrade quite a lot considering for Formula E.

“I think it’s going to be quite difficult tomorrow especially, they haven’t had much dry runnings so, I’m sure there’s a lot of things to test for the team so should be interesting.”

“It was a tricky race for the team, especially qualifying after such a pretty promising FP2 to be honest.” Voisin echoed.

He continued, “You know, I think tomorrow should be dry so we’ll see. I know they’ve got a couple of run plans they want us to go through and what not, that they didn’t get to test this weekend.”

Completely new to the rookie tests

As the only driver of the four who has never driven a Formula E car before, Freddie Slater will be learning everything he can to be within the mix. We spoke with him about what he felt was the hardest aspect of the series’ car to adapt to ahead of the session.

“I think it’s how much the systems are interacting with the driving, it’s completely different to what I’m used to normally.” Slater told Parc Femme in the media pen. “I’m kinda more in control but in this, it seems a little bit the opposite. There’s the systems that you have to trust and also understand what they’re doing at certain points of the corner. Very tricky to get your head around.”

The first rookie session gets underway at 9am track time/8am UK time. There’s no live footage to watch however, you can track the timings on the Formula E website.