Future and past F1 drivers, team bosses, a Liberty gaffer and one of the UK’s most inept politicians have all graced the cockpit of a Formula E car over the years. But, you’ll be surprised exactly who they are, as we delve our own archives to bring you some of the more surprising and hair-raising on-track encounters across the Formula E’s 12 year history.
Bertrand Baguette
Super GT and Formula Renault 3.5 champion Baguette was a highly rated racing driver who is still enjoying a career in his forties.
Back in late 2013 he became a test driver for the Spark company and was the first ever driver to sample the Spark-Renault SRT_01E in the car park of Spark’s French base!
Esteban Ocon
Current Haas F1 driver Esteban Ocon took part in a special demonstration/test on the legendary Pau street circuit in south-west France in May 2014 before Formula E had even completed its first race.
Ocon was then in his first F3 season with Prema Powertrain where he took the title ahead of future FE drivers Jake Dennis, Antonio Giovinazzi and Tom Blomqvist. Oh, and some kid called Max Verstappen!
Ocon joined then GT star Mike Parisy in the runs on the Pau track as Formula E road-showed their new Spark and Dallara built car ahead of its debut in Beijing later that year.
Heinz-Harald Frentzen
In August 2014, 1999 F1 title challenger Heinz-Harald Frentzen, undertook several laps at Donington in one of the first Formula E test cars.
Resplendent in his famous dark blue helmet with German flag insignia, the ex-Williams, Sauber and Jordan F1 driver was said to much enjoy his unexpected cameo performance which came via a link with the DHL freight company.
That was to be last of Frentzen’s practical input in Formula E, although he did commentate on some races in 2017 and 2018 with the German ARD TV broadcaster.
Boris Johnson
When future British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, turned up at Battersea Park the day before the first London EPrix in June 2015 there was an entirely prescient sense of shambles and rank incompetence in the air.
The seal-faced rent-a-toff was absolutely appalling in the car, half-spinning and lightly damaging the front wing in a lap that had Formula E and circuit logistics staff laughing nervously.
Equally as wretched was the then Mayor of London’s manner to some of the Formula E staff, there to help in the publicity stunt but were snapped at by Johnson, who seemed irked that not more TV cameras were pointing in his direction.
After the run, this writer asked Formula E founder Alejandro Agag about Johnson, and a gushing reply came forth. “I have a great deal of respect for Boris,” said the Silvio Berlusconi super fan.
Pedro de la Rosa
The former Jaguar and Arrows F1 driver returned to the cockpit in the summer of 2015 at a little known test at Donington to help the Aguri team out in the testing of its Gen1 car that Antonio Felix da Costa and Nathaneal Berthon would compete in for the second Formula E season.
De la Rosa was looking for a new challenge in motorsport at that stage and became the Sporting Manager of the Techeetah team when it was formed a year later. He was an integral part of the success of the Chinese owned, British based and French engineered squad at the end of the Gen1 period and in to Gen2 before he moved on to F1 where he was and still is a part of the Aston Martin team.
Mike Fries
In October 2025 at a misty and damp Abingdon airfield in rural Oxfordshire, Jaguar’s Gen3 test and development car was pirouetting gracefully down the former RAF runaway, with a surprise giggling occupant aboard.
Mike Fries, who is ultimately the boss of Formula E, via his status as the CEO of Liberty Global, had recently moved to the UK from Denver and was being treated to some seat time by the Big Cat.
“I wanted to give Mike a sense of the kick that a Formula E car had,” Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds, told FEN last October.
“After the test he wanted to tell everyone about it and how incredible the car was.”
Dilbagh Gill
Colourful and larger than life original Mahindra FE team boss Dilbagh Gill was not averse to having a go himself in one of the cars that he helped to compete.
An original ad hoc go in a Gen1 car was memorably viewed by this writer in 2015 when Gill, without a proper seat, perched himself almost on top of the Gen1 car and blasted down the Buddh Circuit straight, sans helmet, during a publicity event.
A few years later in the summer of 2020, Gill got a proper go, again in an ex Nick Heidfeld Gen1, thrashing around the Abingdon Airfield ‘track’ amusing then driver Alexander Sims and the team with his creative lines and unwavering commitment around the wide/open spaces.
