There will be at least four female drivers in Formula E's traditional Berlin rookie test at the Tempelhof track next month - and two of them have significant new deals with teams.
Cupra Kiro announced F1 Academy race winner Bianca Bustamante on Tuesday as a permanent development driver and also taking part in the Berlin test.
She will join the already confirmed Jamie Chadwick at Jaguar, Abbi Pulling at Nissan and Ella Lloyd at McLaren.
Bustamante's new deal follows Nissan announcing on Monday that it was giving reigning F1 Academy champion Pulling a full role as a simulator and rookie driver in a multi-year deal.
Pulling was part of the Alpine academy initiative until earlier this year. Alpine and Nissan are closely affiliated through their group links but also through some shared technical capabilities on the same industrial site just south of Paris.
Speaking of the decision to immerse Pulling in the Formula E project, Nissan team managing director and team principal, Tommaso Volpe said his squad was "very impressed" with Pulling's "speed, commitment, and professionalism" during the all-female test at Jarama last November.
"She is very talented – she was able to adapt incredibly quickly to the car and comfortably top the timesheets, which is difficult in every category but even more so in Formula E, so she is the perfect candidate to join us in this role," Volpe added.
"Abbi will have many responsibilities in the position we've created for her; we want to give her as much experience as possible and we are confident that this long-term, continued collaboration will be very beneficial both for the team and for Abbi, to keep developing as a more complete driver."
The Berlin test will feature at least six hours of running after the penultimate double-header event of the 2025-26 season which takes place on July 12-13. It will be the fourth time that the venue has hosted the in-season test.
Formula E will run another female only test at Valencia at the end of October which will be part of the week-long pre-season running ahead of the final Gen3 season which will begin in Sao Paulo in early December.
Other rookie test runners
The Race understands that other drivers that are likely to be involved in the test include a mixture of Formula 2, F3 and endurance racing drivers - including the current F2 championship leader.
McLaren affiliated F2 points leader Alex Dunne is believed to be highly likely to run with the McLaren Formula E team again after a first appearance in the Jeddah rookie session earlier this year.
Recent Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 Pro-Am winner Louis Deletraz (pictured below) is in discussions with Lola Abt Yamaha about a potential appearance, while F2 driver Richard Verschoor could also get a deal to test a Formula E car for the first time.
Mercedes F1 reserve and 2023 F2 runner-up Frederik Vesti could appear for Andretti alongside Jak Crawford, reprising their runs with the team last season.
While Crawford already has a reserve role with Andretti, it would be a switch for Vesti after he drove for Mahindra (pictured below) at last May's Berlin test.
The Race understands that Vesti has had discussions with Andretti recently about possible future opportunities with the team and he told The Race at Le Mans last week that Formula E was an attractive future career avenue.
"Formula E is on my mind for sure and my heart is very close to single-seaters, and to be driving single-seaters," said Vesti, who is part of Cadillac's Hypercar programme this year.
"To be in Formula E is definitely interesting for my career.
"But I am a little bit in a place now where I soon need to make decisions and decide what direction to take. Formula 1 is still on the cards, being with Mercedes currently, and that's my main focus.
"But there is also IndyCar, Hypercar and Formula E, which are all interesting. Also racing for Cadillac in Hypercar brings me a lot of learning and a lot of enjoyment as well."
F3 driver and Williams F1 junior Alessandro Giusti is also close to a deal to drive at Tempelhof and fellow F3 competitors Santiago Ramos and Tim Tramnitz have been approached as well.
Other drivers that could appear include ex-F1 racer Daniil Kvyat for DS Penske, Theo Pourchaire with Maserati MSG, Kush Maini for Mahindra and Gabriele Mini with Nissan.
Pourchaire is believed to be in the running for a possible race seat with the MSG team for next season, where he could join Nick Cassidy, who will leave Jaguar at the end of the current campaign.
