FE: Jaguar to evaluate four drivers at test

The Jaguar Formula E team will run four drivers in the first official 2016-'17 pre-season test, as it continues to evaluate its line-up ahead of its series debut.

GP2 frontrunners Alex Lynn and Mitch Evans will join 2008/09 A1 Grand Prix champion Adam Carroll and Ford GT driver Harry Tincknell in driving the Jaguar I-Type 1 at Donington Park next week. The three-day test kicks off on Tuesday, Aug. 23, though it is not known which days each driver will run on – or if the final driver decision will be made before the second and final three-day test in September.

The team's official launch, including its driver announcement, is planned for Friday, Sept. 8, the day after pre-season testing concludes.

Jaguar is ending an 11-year absence from major international motorsport by entering FE. It is believed that at least Carroll, who tested with Mahindra last summer and was linked to Team Aguri in the 2015-'16 campaign, has already driven the car on the team's manufacturer test days.

Evans, a protege of ex-F1 driver-turned-World Endurance champion Mark Webber, has tested Porsche's LMP1 car and like Carroll was linked to an FE team in the previous campaign.

Williams F1 development driver Lynn has long been tipped as a Jaguar target because the marque has partnered with Williams Advanced Engineering to run its FE program. He recently ruled out a third GP2 campaign, although described a Williams F1 race seat as "100% my priority".

Tincknell is arguably the most left-field of the quartet, with his last full single-seater program a race-winning European Formula 3 campaign in 2013. Since then, the Briton has won the LMP2 class at the Le Mans 24 Hours – alongside FE driver Oliver Turvey in 2014 – and was a factory driver for Nissan's shortlived LMP1 project before joining Ford's return in the WEC.

Aside from Jaguar, the Mahindra and NextEV teams are also yet to confirm their 2016-'17 driver line-ups.

Nick Heidfeld is expected to remain with Mahindra, while inaugural FE champion Nelson Piquet Jr and Turvey are likely to be retained by NextEV.

2016/17 FE DRIVER LINE-UP SO FAR:

Renault e.dams: Sebastien Buemi, Nico Prost
Abt Audi Sport: Lucas di Grassi, Daniel Abt
DS Virgin Racing: Sam Bird, Jose Maria Lopez
Dragon Racing: Jerome d'Ambrosio, Loic Duval
Mahindra: TBA
Venturi: Stephane Sarrazin, Maro Engel
Andretti: Robin Frijns, Antonio Felix da Costa
Techeetah: Jean-Eric Vergne, Ma Qing Hua
NextEV: TBA
Jaguar: TBA

Originally on Autosport.com