Formula E will continue to promote female talent in its Gen4 era, but a third female test session will not take place, as it has done in the last two years, at the pre-season test.
For the last two seasons Formula E has run the sessions on the final day of its curtain raiser test at Jarama and Valencia respectively. But the newness of the Gen4 cars and a need for teams to maximise time for its race drivers has shifted the emphasis to later in the first Gen4 season.
Formula E Notebook has learned that hosting the event on the Monday after the Shanghai E-Prix in July of 2027 is currently the favoured option with teams suggesting that the circuit would be the most suitable for the occasion.
Formula E Operations, which runs the women’s test programme, has been looking at several new additions to how it can further leverage and promote female talent in Formula E. Part of this is trying to attract additional commercial partners to the programme, while a feasibility study in to if a satellite women’s team could be run for 2027, potentially including taking part in free practice sessions, was also looked at recently.
However, this idea is believed to have not been practical to implement due to strict FIA competition protocols.
Instead, Formula E will continue to consolidate upon its annual test day plans and the FIA Girls on Track Programme, which is delivered at race markets throughout the season and is a free initiative that invites young women aged 12 to 18 to go behind-the-scenes with garage tours, e-karting, racing simulators, and STEM workshop sessions.
An expansion of the women’s test programme, potentially with an element of competition at some stages, has also been scoped-out and is set to be presented to teams soon.
Pulling set to continue with Nissan
Abbi Pulling will extend her deal to be a Nissan development driver as she continues to be the most likely female driver to actually get on to race seat radars in the future.
Pulling has been part of the Nissan team since she tested the first time for the Japanese owned/French based squad in 2024. She ran in both of the women’s tests and also the rookie free practice session at Miami last January.
This season she is racing in the GB3 championship this season with the Rodin Motorsport team and currently sits eighth in the series, with a win at Spa and two further podiums.
Consistently proving to be one of the best female racers over recent years, Pulling was crowned the 2024 F1 Academy Championhsip in 2024 beating fellow Formula E test and development drivers Doriane Pin, Chloe Chambers and Nerea Marti.
The 23 year-old should be announced as continuing with Nissan formally later this month in a role that will see her get more simulator time and also take part in the rookie free practice and full rookie tests again next year.
Although Nissan would not confirm her retention, Team Principal Tomasso Volpe said that he and the team were “very happy with our collaboration with Abbi so far” and that she has been doing “a great job and has developed well with the team, and she has also expressed her interest in continuing with Nissan Formula E Team.
“We are keen to build on what we have achieved together and are currently exploring ways to extend this partnership.”
