Photo: Nissan
Formula E’s annual rookie-only practice session takes place at this weekend’s Miami E-Prix, and a group of junior single-seater stars will be taking part.
The most high-profile of that group is 22-year-old Dennis Hauger, the IndyCar-bound reigning Indy Nxt champion. He will drive for Andretti Global, the team he joined last year and dominated Indy Nxt with.
In 2024, the Norwegian drove for Porsche in FE’s rookie test which took place in Berlin.
Lola Yamaha Abt is calling on the services of Hugh Barter again. He drove for Maserati in FE’s rookie test in 2023, then for the Abt-operated Lola Yamaha team in 2025. Barter was 19th in the 2023 FIA Formula 3 Championship, fifth in Indian Formula 4’s 2024 season then won nine races in the Ultimate Cup Series’ Formula Cup for FRegional cars last year but came fourth in the standings after missing two rounds.
Having joined Barter in Abt’s garage at the 2025 rookie test, Alessandro Giusti joins Jaguar for the 2026 rookie practice session. The Williams junior was 10th in the 2025 FIA F3 Championship as rookie with MP Motorsport, and will stay with the team for a sophomore campaign.
DS Penske is one of the few FE teams with their own driver development programme, and its protege Nikita Bedrin gets another call-up after contesting the 2025 rookie test. He primarily competed in FRegional from 2023 to ’25, but made an F3 cameo and will race in GB3 this year.
Nissan will run two familiar faces in Miami, Gabriele Mini and Abbi Pulling, who joined Nissan thanks to the Japanese manufacturer Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance.
Two years ago, when both were juniors of the Renault-owned Alpine Formula 1 team, they got their first FE mileage with Nissan. Mini did the rookie test, while Pulling drove in the women’s test which was a day of FE’s pre-season testing.
Last June she became Nissan’s rookie test and simulator driver since June 2025 in a multi-year deal, and therefore drove in the rookie and women’s tests. Mini was fastest in the 2025 rookie test, and did the rookie practice session in Jeddah.
Mini is still an Alpine junior and will race for MP in Formula 2 in 2026, having come 13th in the championship as a rookie with Prema last year. Pulling is embarking on a second season in GB3 with Rodin Motorsport, hoping to improve on 10th in the 2025 standings. She was fourth in the FRegional-spec and all-female W Series back in 2022.
FE’s junior single-seater contingent in Miami is completed by Chloe Chambers at Mahindra. She has contested the past two women’s tests, driving for Andretti in 2024 and then Mahindra in 2025, and has spent the last two years as a Campos Racing driver in the all-female and F4-spec F1 Academy series.