Photo: F1 Academy
Nissan will run Alpine juniors Sophia Floersch and Abbi Pulling in Formula E pre-season testing next week.
The test takes place at Valencia’s Ricardo Tormo circuit on November 4-7, and FE has decided that in a session on the final day teams will be required to have a woman in one of their cars.
The majority of teams have chosen two, including Nissan which is part of the same automotive group as Alpine.
Floersch has been racing in Formula 3 since 2018, and her best result in that time has been a seventh place achieved in the FIA F3 Championship’s feature race at Spa-Francorchamps last year. She came 29th in the standings this season.
She has experience of more powerful machinery from time spent in sportscar racing, having come 18th in the DTM and 13th in the World Endurance Championship’s LMP2 class three years ago. Floersch also has two European Le Mans Series podiums, and on Monday she took part in her first Indy Nxt test with HMD Motorsports.
Pulling reached Formula Regional earlier in her single-seater career, making the podium three times in the all-female W Series across 2021 and ’22.
Either side of that she has raced in Formula 4, winning a race en route to seventh in the British championship this year as a part-time entrant and also leading the 2024 season of the all-female F1 Academy series with seven victories.
Indy Nxt race-winner Jamie Chadwick will test for Jaguar, as she previously did in a 2020 rookie test. The three-time W Series champion is looking towards IndyCar for 2024 having finished seventh in her second season in Indy Nxt this year with Andretti, and will partner Ferrari-contracted sportscar racer Lilou Wadoux at Jaguar.
DS Penske will run Pulling’s fellow F4 racer Jessica Edgar in FE testing along with former W Series frontrunner Beitske Visser. Edgar claimed a podium in GB4 two years ago, and came eighth in F1 Academy last year with one win. She is currently 10th in the 2024 standings.
Lola Yamaha Abt has called up Miki Koyama, who moved on from single-seater racing this year. She was a Honda junior when racing in Japanese F4, spent two seasons racing in W Series and also appeared in FRegional Asian Championship events before a breakthrough FRegional Japanese Championship campaign in 2022 with Toyota backing. She won the title against limited opposition, claiming seven race victories along the way, and moved into sportscars via Super GT’s GT300 class last year.
She did make one single-seater outing in 2023, contesting the F4 races that supported the Macau Grand Prix.
Lena Buhler, who finished second in F1 Academy last year, will test for Mahindra. She returned to Formula Regional Europe this year with ART Grand Prix but ended her campaign early with four rounds to go with a best finish of 22nd.
Reigning F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia and other drivers from the series were among those previously announced for the test.
Valencia Formula E women’s test line-up
Jaguar: Jamie Chadwick / Lilou Wadoux
Porsche: Marta Garcia / Gabriela Jilkova
DS Penske: Jessica Edgar / Beitske Visser
Nissan: Sophia Floersch / Abbi Pulling
Andretti: Chloe Chambers / Nerea Marti
Envision: Alisha Palmowski / Alice Powell
McLaren: Bianca Bustamante / Ella Lloyd
Maserati: Tatiana Calderon / Carrie Schreiner
Lola Yamaha Abt: Miki Koyama
Mahindra: Lena Buhler
Kiro Race Co: Simona de Silvestro