The official rookie test is Formula E’s gateway opportunity to help drivers make their mark in the series. The event, which was previously held in Berlin, has helped bring new talent into the all-electric championship while also allowing the drivers to gain valuable experience.

Parc Femme joined Nyck de Vries, Edoardo Mortara, Antonio Felix da Costa and Zane Maloney to find out what advice they’d give to those who will join the grid today.

Lola Yamaha’s Zane Maloney is one of our newer faces on the grid. At the end of his successful Formula 3 campaign, the 22-year-old joined Andretti as a test driver in season 9. From there, he became the team’s reserve driver for season 10 before landing his full-time drive with Lola.

So what advice would he give his younger self now with the experience he’s gained from his own journey?

“Of course it depends,” Maloney told Parc Femme. “Some rookies are here for sim correlation, some rookies are here to try and impress, some rookies are here to work for the teams, so it depends.”

As a test driver for Andretti, Maloney joined the team in April 2023 to participate in the rookie test at the Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit. From there, he completed the rookie FP0 session in Rome. After stepping up to reserve, he continued with the team for both FP0 in Misano and the returning rookie test in Berlin. 

Maloney continued, “I mean, when I was with Andretti, I was there to impress and there to try to move the team forward as well.”

“I would say come here and be professional, drive as fast as you can. I think the teams always, a lap time on the day doesn’t actually matter in a rookie test, it’s how you work with the team and the potential that they can see.”

With a strong line-up for today’s rookie test, including the likes of Victor Martins and Joshua Dürksen who competed against Maloney in his final year of feeder series racing, the Barbadian added:

“So yeah, I mean most of the rookies here are guys I raced for my entire career so I should really be giving them advice because we’ve all been racing each other. Just drive fast and be professional.”

Staying Focused and Avoiding Mistakes.

The Formula E rookie tests have been a pivotal event for many drivers who drive in the series today. With the first-ever session debuting in season 4, Nyck de Vries found himself benefiting from the experience.

The Dutch driver joined Audi in 2018 and Envision in 2019 for the rookie tests before ultimately joining Mercedes EQ for the 2019-20 season following his win in Formula 2. Since his first rookie session to now, de Vries has found himself in the Formula E hall of fame as the season 7 champion in only his second year.

“I think the rookies are more than capable of knowing what to do.” Nyck de Vries told Parc Femme when asked about advice for the drivers, “But I guess just being patient. It will come.”

The Mahindra driver’s teammate, Edoardo Mortara, is a long standing member of Formula E. The Swiss joined the series in 2017, the season that introduced the rookie tests, where he clinched a podium in his second race. Without ever participating in one of the rookie tests, what advice would Mortara have given himself if the opportunity had been around?

“I don’t really know actually.” Mortara said. “To try to stay focused, try to avoid any kind of mistakes because you have a lot of, like, complex things.

“Obviously, experience is helpful. As a rookie, you don’t have that experience, so try to go with the flow without doing any major mistakes.”

Thrown in the deep end this rookie test.

Another driver who never had the opportunity to compete in a Formula E rookie test is Portuguese driver, Antonio Felix da Costa. The season 6 champion entered the series during its inaugural season and hasn’t missed a year since. With a plethora of experience under his belt, his main advice was “Don’t crash.” 

Felix da Costa went on to add, “No honestly, for rookies to drive the car here, it’s going to be a challenge for them. They’re being thrown straight into the deep end of things and last couple of years they’ve done this test in Berlin which is, you know, a little bit smoother, not so much elevation, wider.

“Here, you know, you make a mistake, you’re going to pay a price for it so, hopefully nothing goes wrong with my car and I’ll be watching that. But no, I think we’ve got two good drivers in our team so we’ll be fine.”

The rookie test kicks off later today, with returning faces and fresh talent. The all-day event has been a proven pathway for drivers in Formula E, with Saturday’s pole-sitter Nick Cassidy being one of the many who landed themselves a full-time seat. 

With a stacked grid, which of our rookies are you expecting to see on the grid full-time in the future?

Team	Driver	Driver
Andretti	Freddie Slater	Callum Voisin
Citroën Racing	Théo Pourchaire	Joshua Dürksen
CUPRA KIRO	Bianca Bustamante	Cian Shields
DS PENSKE	Nikita Bedrin	Daniil Kvyat
Envision Racing	Ella Lloyd	Zak O’Sullivan
Jaguar TCS Racing	Juju Noda	Bryce Aron
Lola Yamaha ABT	Hugh Barter	Richard Verschoor
Mahindra Racing	Kush Maini	Théophile Naël
Nissan	Abbi Pulling	Victor Martins
Porsche	Elia Weiss	Ayhancan Güven