ABB FIA Formula E World Championship hopefuls showcase their skills in German capital.
Gabriele Minì came out on top of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship’s Rookie Test in Berlin yesterday (14 May), outpacing his rivals in both sessions as 22 drivers collectively notched up more than 2,100 laps around the historic Tempelhof Airport circuit.
The test offered up to six hours of track time behind the wheel of the series’ groundbreaking GEN3 Evo model – the most technologically-advanced, lightweight, powerful and efficient electric single-seater race car built to-date.
The eligibility criteria was the possession of at least an International Grade B licence and having never contested a race in the championship, with participants assisting teams in their development programmes while benefitting from the opportunity to accelerate their own. Previous tests have proved to be a launchpad for a number of talented hopefuls to stake their claim to a full-time race role.
Twenty-four hours after Nissan Formula E Team’s Oliver Rowland clinched the coveted Season 11 crown in the German capital, Minì similarly starred for the Japanese manufacturer in considerably warmer, sunnier conditions by topping the Rookie Test timesheets in the same car.
The 20-year-old spent the three-hour morning session trading fastest laps with fellow Alpine Academy member and FIA Formula 2 Championship protagonist Kush Maini. Trying out for Mahindra Racing, Maini stole the show back in February in the Rookie Free Practice running in Jeddah, where he had been pushed hardest by… Minì.
This time, the Italian pipped the Indian to the top spot in the morning by a scant 0.016s, before shaving a further two tenths-of-a-second off his own benchmark later on to end the day at the head of the order.
DTM race-winner Ayhancan Güven vaulted from tenth in session one up to second in session two for TAG Heuer Porsche Formula E Team, winding up 0.226s adrift of Minì and five thousandths clear of Maini, whose earlier effort would remain good enough for third outright.
America’s Jak Crawford was a front-runner throughout, posting his best time in the morning to secure fourth overall for Andretti Formula E, five hundredths-of-a-second ahead of Callum Voisin at CUPRA Kiro. Having recently participated in a free practice session for McLaren Formula 1 Team in Austria, Alex Dunne led the way for a while in the afternoon in Berlin prior to ending up sixth for NEOM McLaren Formula E Team.
Other notable names included 2023 Formula 2 champion Théo Pourchaire and Arthur Leclerc – younger brother of Ferrari Formula 1 star Charles Leclerc – who placed respectively tenth and 13th for Maserati MSG Racing. The test marked the latter’s first outing in a Formula E car since sampling the GEN2 single-seater in Marrakech six years ago.
Elsewhere in the field, triple W Series title-holder Jamie Chadwick (Jaguar TCS Racing), 2024 F1 Academy champion Abbi Pulling (Nissan) – the pace-setter in Formula E’s pioneering Women’s Test in Madrid last year – as well as fellow F1 Academy race-winners Bianca Bustamante (CUPRA Kiro) and Ella Lloyd (McLaren) all got crucial kilometres under their belts.
The same was true for Elia Weiss, who at only 16, became the youngest driver ever to pilot a Formula E car in an official session as he put 90 laps on the board for Porsche. The German teenager concluded proceedings just 1.255s adrift of Minì, with all 22 participants ultimately blanketed by barely one-and-a-half seconds – characteristic of Formula E’s famously close and competitive nature.
