JODIE SAXON

Oct 2910 min read

Preview: Who is Driving in Formula E’s All-Women Test?

We take a look at the upcoming Formula E all-women test at Circuit Ricardo Tormo, with 19 female drivers from diverse racing backgrounds set to get behind the wheel - in an effort to increase female representation in the series.

Jamie Chadwick, Lilou Wadoux, Jaguar Racing — Photo credits: Jaguar Racing

As part of Formula E’s commitment to accelerate diversity and equality in motorsports, the series is hosting an all-women session during their pre-season testing at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in November. 19 women will take part in the session, taking place during the afternoon of the 7th November, with most teams fielding two drivers for the event.

After 10 years of racing the all-electric championship has seen only 3 women start a race, Katherine Legge, Michela Cerruti, and Simona de Silvestro, with the latter of which being the only woman to score points so far.

This isn’t the first time that Formula E has encouraged teams to scout for female talent – in 2018 teams were allowed to run both cars during the in-season Diriyah test if their second car was driven by a woman – but it is the first time that the championship has held a specific women only session.

Andretti

As one of Formula E’s longest serving teams, Andretti have opted to run two women for the all-women test in Valencia. Surprisingly, they are not fielding their IndyNXT race winner Jamie Chadwick (who will appear for a rival team), and are instead taking on F1 Academy drivers Chloe Chambers and Nerea Martí.

Chloe Chambers — Photo credits: Campos Racing

Chambers made her single seater debut in 2021 with a season in the United States F4 championship. The following year, she stepped up to compete in the all-female W Series championship, lining up alongside the unstoppable Jamie Chadwick for the curtailed season that saw her finish in the points only once.

In 2023, Chambers made history when she became the first woman to win a race in the Formula Regional Oceania Championship – previously known as the Toyota Racing Series – while competing part time in the Porsche Sprint Challenge NA. The young American driver continued to make appearances in the Porsche series this year, alongside making her return to all-female series by signing with Haas to join Campos Racing in F1 Academy.

So far, she has picked up one win and two further podiums in F1 Academy and sits 4th in the championship with 2 rounds to go.

Nerea Marti — Photo credits: Andretti Formula E

Nerea Martí is one of Chambers’ F1 Academy teammates, running in the Tommy Hilfiger sponsored Campos Racing car. Martí’s career began a few years before Chambers in 2019 when she took part in the Spanish F4 championship and scored a podium in her second ever race.

Martí then qualified for W Series in 2020, but returned to karting for a season following the cancellation of the championship that year and eventually made her series debut in 2021. At the end of 2021, she was selected to take part in an FIA Formula 3 test alongside Irina Sidorkova, Maya Weug, and Doriane Pin.

Martí is now in her second year of F1 Academy, having finished an impressive 4th in the inaugural season, and this Formula E test could provide her with an opportunity to further her single seater career.

DS Penske

DS Penske have opted to combine experience with a fresh face in their test lineup. F1 Academy driver Jess Edgar will get her first taste of Formula E machinery with the black-and-gold team. Her previous experiences include 7th in the inaugural GB4 championship and 3 top 15 finishes during her British F4 appearence in 2024.

Jessica Edgar — Photo courtesy: Greenlight

Although it is Jess Edgar’s first Formula E experience, she wont be the first member of her family to test in the all electric series: her cousin, FIA F3 race winner Jonny Edgar took park in the 2023 and 2024 Berlin rookie tests for Envision Racing and DS Penske.

Alongside Edgar will be Beitske Visser, a driver known most recently for her two vice-champion finishes in W Series and taking part in the World Endurance Championship as part of Richard Mille’s all-female LMP2 team. Visser took part in the 2018 Diriyah test for BMW i Andretti and served as the team’s test and reserve driver for the duration of season 5.

Envision Racing

Envision Racing is one of the few teams to have tested a woman outside of mandatory all-women events. 31 year old Alice Powell, who made history in 2013 by becoming the first woman to score points in GP3, first tested for the team in the 2020 Marrakesh rookie test and has served as the teams’ simulator and development driver since.

Powell’s career has been linked to Formula E ever since she took part in their old support series, the Jaguar I-Pace Trophy in 2018 before returning for a full season in 2019, which she contested alongside the inaugural W Series season.

In the 3 years W Series ran, Powell took a top 3 result in the championship every year, marking her out as a talented individual. She is also known for being the mentor to another ‘AP’, Abbi Pulling, the British F4 and F1 Academy race winner who is also set to take part in the Valencia test.

If two APs aren’t enough, Envision Racing have found a third one in the form of GB4 vice-champion Alisha Palmowski.

Palmowski’s single seater debut came in 2024 when she joined the GB4 championship, a Formula 4 level series racing in the UK, but before then she had competed in the Ginetta Junior Championship and was even the vice-champion of the 2022 Winter Series of the championship.

Jaguar TCS Racing

When Jamie Chadwick first tested for Jaguar Racing back in 2020 she had just won the first W Series championship and was on the cusp of stardom, since then she’s won 2 more W Series titles, become the first woman to win an IndyNXT race on a road course, and has even tested an IndyCar with the legendary Andretti.

Her Formula E testing debut came during the 2018 Diriyah rookie test with Nio (now known as Kiro Race Co) and she reprised that role during the 2019 Marrakesh Rookie test. In 2020 she returned to Marrakesh for another rookie test, this time with Jaguar Racing.

Jamie Chadwick, Lilou Wadoux — Photo credits: Jaguar Racing

Chadwick is joined for the test by the lesser mainstream-known but by no means lesser talented Lilou Wadoux. The Frenchwoman is currently a Ferrari factory driver and competes in SuperGT as well as the IMSA Sportscar Championship, but prior to that she competed in the FIA World Endurance Championship first for Richard Mille LMP2 in 2022 (a team that previously ran an all-female lineup consisting of fellow Formula E testers Sophia Floersch, Beitske Visser, and Tatiana Calderon!) and then for AF Corse in the GTE class the following season.

Wadoux and her teammates took a stunning second place at the 2023 6H of Portimao but went on to improve that result to a class win at the 6H of Spa, making her the first woman to win a race in any class of the FIA WEC.

Kiro Race Co

With Kiro Race Co using old Porsche powertrains for season 11, it makes sense that they take one of Porsche’s drivers for the test. Simona de Silvestro may currently be chasing an entry for the 2026 Winter Olympics as part of the Italian Boblseigh team, but before then she made history as the first woman to compete a full season of Formula E and to score points.

Simona De Silvestro — Photo credits: Joe Portlock

Her career is a long and exciting one, beginning back in 2005 with a debut season in the Formula Renault 2.0 Italian championship. Five years after that she joined the IndyCar series, and in 2013 she became one of the few women to score a podium in the championship.

Her Formula E career started in the final two rounds of the inaugural season when she joined Andretti Autosport and picked up respectable finishes of 11th and 12th. The following season saw her team up with Robin Frijns for a full season at the team that yielded two points finishes for her: a 9th place at Long Beach followed by another 9th in Berlin!

After appearing in the 2018 Diriyah test for Venturi Racing, De Silvestro joined Porsche as a reserve driver.

Lola Yamaha Abt

Lola-Yamaha Abt have opted to run only one driver for the test, with that driver being Miki Koyama. The Japanese driver is a development driver for Toyota Gazoo Racing, and with Toyota having a strong relationship with Yamaha she is the perfect choice for the team.

Koyama’s racing career started in Japan back in 2015 and it wasn’t until 2019 that she was unleashed on the international racing world when she joined W Series.

In 2022 Koyama made history by winning the Formula Regional Japanese Championship, becoming the first woman to win an a mixed gender, single seater, FIA sanctioned championship. She currently competes in the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Asia for Iron Lynx, as well as making appearences in SuperGT, Super Taikyu, and the Toyota GR Cup North America.

Mahindra Racing

A few days after showcasing their new livery for season 11, Mahindra Racing confirmed the signing of 2023 F1 Academy vice-champion Léna Bühler for the test.

The Sauber Academy driver made her car racing debut in only 2020 when she took part in the Spanish F4 championship and finished 15th. The following two seasons saw her step up to Formula Regional level before she returned to Formula 4 level to compete in the newly formed F1 Academy.

After the successful season in F1 Academy she stepped back up to the Formula Regional European Championship but later withdrew from the second half of the season.

Maserati MSG Racing

Maserati’s lineup for the test features two drivers with previous Formula E experience under their belts. Tatiana Calderon has been a staple of the motorsports scene since she burst into the industry back in 2009, now 31 years old the Colombian has appeared in series such as FIA Formula 2, Super Formula, IndyCar, the World Endurance Championship, and spent a handful of years as a test driver for the Alfa Romeo F1 Team.

Calderon’s first Formula E appearence came during the 2018 Diriyah test, where she drove for DS Techeetah. She impressed the team enough to be invited back for the 2019 Marrakesh rookie test a few months later. For this groundbreaking all-women test, Calderon is joined by another Diriyah test debutant: Carrie Schreiner.

Like most drivers Schreiner started her career in Formula 4, but after a few years she switched to sportscar racing where she became champion of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Middle Eastern Championship in 2018 – the same year in which she participated in the Diriyah test for HWA Racelab.

Schreiner was not initially due to take part in that test, with the slot at HWA belonging to Sophia Floersch (who is set to drive for Nissan), however Floersch’s horror crash at the 2018 Macau Grand Prix put her out of action and meant Schreiner drove instead.

Carrie Schreiner — Photo credits: Sauber

Schreiner has since returned to Formula cars alongside her sportcar endeavours and currently represents Stake F1 Team in F1 Academy.

NEOM McLaren

McLaren have opted for the incredibly exciting Ella Lloyd, a Welsh teenager who made her motorsports debut in only 2022 with a season in the highly regarded Ginetta Junior Championship. Prior to that, Lloyd won a gold medal at the 2019 Welsh Skiing Championship and has also been a successful showjumper with her horse Elvira.

Lloyd made her single seaters debut in 2024 with a part time campaign in the Formula Winter Series – an F4 championship that takes place in Spain during winter – as preperation for her main series, the British F4 championship.

She impressed on her British F4 debut by scoring points in her first two races, and during the 5th round of the championship she took her first podium. Despite her inexperience and missing a round, she went on to finish on the podium another 3 times and ended the season in 11th place, only 1.5 points away from the top 10.

Ella Lloyd — Photo credits: NEOM McLaren

A wildcard appearence in the F1 Academy series brought Lloyd’s talent to an international audience when she joined the series in Singapore, and her pair of points finishes there caught the eye of McLaren who have signed her to their academy to represent them in the all-female championship in 2025 and join them for the Formula E test.

Lloyd will be joined by Filipina racer Bianca Bustamante who represents McLaren in F1 Academy this year. Like Lloyd, Bustamante is still in the early stages of her career and made her car racing debut in only 2022 in the USF Juniors Championship before joining W Series full time.

After the downfall of W Series, Bustamante has focused on developing her skills at a Formula 4 levels and in the past two years has raced in F1 Academy, Formula Winter Series, British F4, Italian F4, Euro4, and the UAE F4 Championship.

Nissan

Nissan will be fielding two Alpine Academy members for the test. F1 Academy championship leader Abbi Pulling will be following in the footsteps of her mentor Alice Powell to get a taste of Formula E machinery.

The 21 year old British driver has had a busy 2024, her F1 Academy campaign has been supplemented by appearences in the British F4 championship where she made history by becoming the first woman to win a race in the category.

Abbi Pulling has spent the majority of her most recent seasons competing in all-female categories, first in W Series where she finished an impressive 7th in 2021 despite only contesting half the rounds and 4th in 2022.

Sophia Floersch — Photo credits: Alpine Academy

On the other hand, Sophia Floerch has quite often been outspoken about her dislike for all-female categories and chooses instead to forge her path in mixed gender series. In 2023 she scored her first points in the FIA Formula 3 championship during the feature race at Spa Franchorchamps, but could not repeat that result in 2024.

Floersch was due to take part in the 2018 Formula E Diriyah test, however her horror-crash at the Macau Grand Prix that year ensured she was unable to attend.

Porsche Formula E Team

Porsche’s very own Gabriela Jílková will represent the German manufacturer during the all-women test. The Czech driver joined Porsche at the start of season 10, joining them for pre-season testing before taking on a role as a simulator and development driver during the season.

Gabriela Jilkova — Photo credits: Porsche AG

She currently competes in the GT4 European Championship, sharing a Toyota GR Supra GT4 Evo with fellow woman in motorsport Cindy Gudet, and in the Indian Racing League, where she has claimed 3 podiums so far this year for the Goa Aces team.

She will be joined in the test by Iron Dame Marta García, who has been supplementing her Formula Regional European Championship campaign with appearences in the Ligier European Series for the iconic Iron Dames team. García made her Formula E testing debut in the 2024 Berlin rookie test, where she set the 19th fastest laptime for ERT (now Kiro Race Co).