Alguersuari, Klien eye Formula E

Ex-Formula 1 racers Jaime Alguersuari (RIGHT), Christian Klien and Robert Doornbos are among the final drivers to formally lodge an interest in racing in the new Formula E championship.

The series for electric-powered open-wheerled racers kicked off the year by revealing its list of experienced drivers who are available and interested in joining the new championship that starts later this year. On Wednesday Formula E released eight more drivers that have signed up, taking the total to 24 (see below).

The other five new additions are sports car racers Nicolas Minassian, Alex Brundle and Katherine Legge, plus GP3 and IndyCar racer Conor Daly and veteran driver Ben Collins, best known in recent times for his stint as 'The Stig' on the Top Gear television program.

Alguersuari, who has not raced since losing his Toro Rosso F1 drive at the end of 2011, said: "I'm very pleased to be joining the Formula E Drivers' Club. I think Formula E provides a new concept in motorsport and will be a great challenge to the drivers, especially having to learn new tracks in just one day in city centres like London and Beijing."

Doornbos, who has high-powered open-wheel experience from racing in F1, Champ Car, IndyCar, A1GP and Superleague Formula, hopes to get back to racing for the first time since 2011.

"I believe that Formula E cars are the future of motor racing and I look forward to racing again," he said. "I'm positive that it will attract a lot of attention worldwide."

Signing up to the scheme does not guarantee any of the drivers a place in the series for its inaugural season, as the 10 teams still have a free choice of who to sign.

FORMULA E "DRIVERS' CLUB"

Daniel Abt
Christijan Albers
Jaime Alguersuari
Marco Andretti
Sebastien Bourdais
Alex Brundle
Sebastien Buemi
Karun Chandhok
Ben Collins
Conor Daly
Robert Doornbos
Lucas di Grassi
JR Hildebrand
Ma Qing Hua
Narain Karthikeyan
Christian Klien
Katherine Legge
Vitantonio Liuzzi
Nicolas Minassian
Franck Montagny
Takuma Sato
Bruno Senna
Oriol Servia
Adrien Tambay

This story originally appeared on autosport.com