The all-female Formula E test entry list is all but complete with a strong array of drivers from several areas of professional motorsport set to complete three hours of running at Valencia on the afternoon of November 7.
Three-time W Series champion Jamie Chadwick, IndyCar podium finisher Simona de Silvestro and a host of Formula 1-affiliated academy drivers are among the biggest names in women's motorsport taking part.
All bar the Mahindra, newly named Kiro and Lola ABT teams will run a brace of drivers in the new initiative which the series promoter, Formula E Operations, say is "part of a broader long-term strategy to remove barriers and expand opportunities for women".
Familiar faces
There are drivers from a decent cross-section of championships who Formula E teams have opted for.
F1 Academy accounts for six drivers - Carrie Schreiner, Abbi Pulling, Bianca Bustamante (pictured above), Chloe Chambers, Nerea Marti and Lena Buehler, who is yet to be announced but is expected to drive - while there are three Formula 3 and Formula 4 drivers (Sophia Floersch, Ella Lloyd and Alisha Palmowski), a Super GT racer (Lilou Wadoux) and one competitor from Indy NXT (Chadwick).
The one real omission is the Iron Dames World Endurance Championship quartet of the last couple of years Sarah Bovy, Michelle Gatting, Rahel Frey and Doriane Pin. While Pin is believed to have too many commitments in F1 Academy and Formula Regional, Gatting in particular should have been included.
Final entry List
Porsche: Marta Garcia/ Gabriela Jilkova
Jaguar: Jamie Chadwick/Lilou Wadoux
DS Penske: Jessica Edgar/Beitske Visser
Andretti: Chloe Chambers/Nerea Marti
Envision: Alice Powell/Alisha Palmowski
Nissan: Abbi Pulling/Sophia Floersch
McLaren: Ella Lloyd/Bianca Bustamante
Maserati: Tatiana Calderon/Carrie Schreiner
Mahindra: Lena Buehler
ABT Lola: Miki Koyama
Kiro: Simona de Silvestro
Several of these drivers have a reasonable amount of Formula E knowledge, although only Marta Garcia (pictured above), de Silvestro, Alice Powell and Gabriela Jilkova have prior serious experience in the Gen3 car - the forebearer to the new Gen3 Evo design that teams will test at Valencia.
Schreiner, Chadwick, Beitske Visser and Tatiana Calderon all tested on occasion during the Gen2 era but the rest of the grid has only simulator experience.
Wadoux especially is an interesting choice by Jaguar for the test. She comes with strong experience in international racing, in both the WEC and Super GT. Her results have been notable, winning an LM GTE Am round at Spa last season in the WEC and gaining a second place at Sugo in the GT300 category of Super GT last month.
Frederic Bertrand, team principal of the Mahindra outfit that The Race understands will field last year's F1 Academy runner-up Lena Buehler in the test, explained the selection process his team had undertaken.
"We have Elisa [Sacchini] in charge of the sporting matters, so I asked her to do a list and then we contacted several profiles," Bertrand told The Race.
"What we wanted were more people where we felt that there was a wish to work with us, and then we had a test session here in the simulator to understand and make sure that they can deliver.
"We want to make sure that what we do is properly done. We have had a lot of sessions and tests before in the simulator and a bit of coaching from the drivers, Nyck [de Vries] and Edo [Edoardo Mortara].
"At the moment it is maybe not the easiest one because we will have the guys [race drivers] fully focused on making sure that we start the season properly. Then at the same moment, you end up with trying to do something with an additional driver.
"But you need to make sure that that additional driver is bringing something to the development, something to what you want to set up. So that's more the way we work which is to find drivers able to bring us some inputs on how to make the car better."
New talents
It says much for the renewed focus on female racers building their experience in Formula E that some of those testing, including Powell, Jilkova and de Silvestro, will have a serious possibility of being involved with teams in a significant capacity going forward.
Of these drivers, Ella Lloyd (pictured above) is already an official member of the McLaren driver development programme, while 2024 F1 Academy points leader Pulling and Floersch have ties with Nissan's sister brand Alpine.
Miki Koyama is also a Toyota development driver, which is significant in the sense that Toyota is closely linked to Yamaha with which Lola and ABT will work closely over the coming seasons.
It remains to be seen how much teams are willing to invest post-test in these prospects but the feeling is that some teams will formulate some kind of agreement with a female driver for future activities.
So, who is most likely to follow Katherine Legge (pictured driving below), Michela Cerruti and de Silvestro to race in Formula E? It still remains a long shot for a woman to get a permanent seat because the level of Formula E is now so high compared to its first season a decade ago.
As Cerruti told The Race earlier this month: "In 2014 the technology was not at the level that it is today in Formula E. The car was not as quick and it was not working as well as it is working today."
The reality now is that the most likely scenario for a female to race again in Formula E immediately would be as a substitute driver.
With that in mind, you'd probably look at inaugural F1 Academy champion Garcia being the most likely to do so if she were needed this season at Kiro, and the same can be said for de Silvestro at Porsche should she attend races in a reserve capacity again.
Earlier this year, Powell was magnanimous in her appraisal of the situation whereby she was not seriously considered to replace either Sebastien Buemi or Robin Frijns at Berlin. This was down to the fact that she had not raced anything for close to two years, rather than any competitive reasoning.
Lloyd seems like a driver who could have a long-term future at McLaren, where if she impresses in F1 Academy she could be utilised as a genuine reserve for its Formula E team.
A year ago, Taylor Barnard was a complete unknown in Formula E circles. Now he has a full-time contract and has the opportunity to make a serious career for himself.
That's a template that Lloyd and her managers Guy Smith and Andy Meyrick at Greenlight Sports Management will be studying carefully over the coming months.
The all-female test will be a genuine evaluation process for the 19 drivers and although it's only three hours in duration, it should provide decent answers on who might have a viable future in the all-electric world championship.
Although the test will be the final Valencia track action of the week there will be no 'saving the hardware' restrictions to the running. That's because the teams, although on a tight schedule to get the freight ready for sailing to Brazil for the 2024-25 season opener in Sao Paulo, will still have time to get the cars race ready.
All of the entrants have undertaken simulator sessions ahead of the test and some will be working with major manufacturers for the first time.
At the very least, this will be an invaluable experience for the drivers and the fact the test has been organised with a meritorious philosophy means it will be taken much more seriously than the tokenistic affair that was the Diriyah test in 2018.
With possibilities in F1 seemingly still another generation away, Formula E should be a credible possibility for female racers in the future. The Gen4 car that's introduced in 2026 should allow a degree of technical parity; with a power steering system confirmed and with the promoter pushing hard, there is a decent chance that a fourth female driver can be on the grid sooner rather than later.
