A seasoned group of veterans have been added to the line-up for next month’s in-season Formula E test on the streets of Ad Diriyah, which will take place a day after the opening race of season five, the Ad Diriyah E-Prix.
Fresh off her runner-up finish in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship 2018 GT Daytona category, Katherine Legge will test Mahindra Racing’s M5Electro. It was announced in August that Legge would join Bryan Sellers in driving Rahal Letterman Lanigan’s two Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY series electric race cars during the 2018/2019 ABB FIA Formula E season.
Sauber test driver Tatiana Calderon, who recently impressed in her latest test drive with the F1 organization, has been added to DS Techeetah’s line-up alongside Andre Lotterer to test their DS E-TENSE FE19. Calderon is no stranger to single-seater racing, having competed in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship before moving to GP3 in 2016.
“When the promoter approached us about the opportunity to offer a test session to a talented female racing driver at the first in-season test, we jumped at the opportunity,” said DS Techeetah team principal Mark Preston. “We immediately started thinking about drivers that would be suitable for the test, and Tatiana was on top of our list. She’s incredibly talented and we think she’ll do a stellar job at the test with the experience she is able to bring.”
With Saudi Arabia’s recent decision to allow women to drive, the local promoter has worked with teams with the stated goal of encouraging more female participation — and the test includes the first Emirati female racing driver. Envision Virgin Racing will turn to UAE-born Amna Al Qubaisi, a winner of the UAE Rotax Max Challenge Championship before more recently competing in Formula 4 with Prema Theodore Racing.
“I’m very proud to be representing women in general and Arabian women in particular,” Al Qubaisi said. “This test drive is another steppingstone towards my dream of a professional career in motorsports and thanks to the continuous support of Kaspersky Lab, this dream will eventually come true.”
BMW junior driver Beitske Visser, who drives in the GT4 European Series, will have an opportunity with BMW i Andretti Motorsport team. Carmen Jorda, a Women in Motorsport Commission member and former Renault F1 development driver, will test alongside Sebastien Buemi with Nissan e.dams.
Test driver line-up:
Car |
Team |
Session 1 |
Session 2 |
2 | Envision Virgin Racing | Robin Frijns | Sam Bird |
4 | Envision Virgin Racing | Amna Al Qubaisi | Amna Al Qubaisi |
5 | HWA Racelab | TBD | Stoffel Vandoorne |
6 | GEOX Dragon | TBD | TBD |
7 | GEOX Dragon | Jose Maria Lopez | Max Gunther |
8 | NIO Formula E | Jamie Chadwick | Jamie Chadwick |
16 | NIO Formula E | Oliver Turvey/Tom Dillmann | Oliver Turvey/Tom Dillmann |
17 | HWA Racelab | Gary Paffett | TBD |
19 | Venturi Formula E | Simona de Silvestro | Simona de Silvestro |
20 | Panasonic Jaguar Racing | Mitch Evans | Mitch Evans |
22 | Nissan e.dams | Carmen Jorda/Alex Albon | Carmen Jorda/Alex Albon |
23 | Nissan e.dams | Sebastien Buemi/Alex Albon | Sebastien Buemi//Alex Albon |
25 | DS Techeetah | Tatiana Calderon | Jean-Eric Vergne |
27 | BMW i Andretti | Alexander Sims | Alexander Sims |
28 | BMW i Andretti | Beitske Visser | Beitske Visser |
36 | DS Techeetah | Andre Lotterer | Tatiana Calderon |
48 | Venturi Formula E | Felipe Massa | Edoardo Mortara |
64 | Mahindra Racing | Jerome D’Ambrosio | Jerome D’Ambrosio |
66 | Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler | Nico Muller | Nico Muller |
94 | Mahindra Racing | Katherine Legge | Katherine Legge |
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