Miami will host the traditional rookie test day next February in addition to a free practice session prior to the second E-Prix to be held at the circuit around the Hard Rock Stadium.
The venue hosted an extra free practice for rookie drivers last January, with rookie GEN4 race drivers Zak O’Sullivan and Theo Pourchaire taking part in the session.
Miami will now host both this initiative and the full test day, which has been held at the Berlin Tempelhof venue for the last three seasons.
The rookie test day usually runs to a brace of three hour sessions across the day, and has previously seen established drivers such as Nick Cassidy, Nico Mueller, Nyck de Vries and Zane Maloney be introduced in to the all-electric World Championship.
Rookie drivers must hold at least an International Grade B licence (or a previous F1 Super Licence0 and have no prior Formula E race weekend experience. However, for the rookie free practice session drivers such as Zak O’Sullivan and Theo Pourchaire will be eligible to take part as they are defined as rookies until the end of their first full season. Theya re though not eligible for the rookie test day itself.
Presently, Miami is set to be the fifth round of the 2026-27 campaign, although it could in fact become the third round should the Jeddah E-Prix be postponed next month.
5 memorable rookie moments
Albon’s brief Formula E run, Marrakesh 2018
Williams F1 driver Alex Albon made a brief appearance at the 2018 Marrakesh Rookie test, the first ever to be run by Formula E.
Driving for the Renault e.dams operation, Albon took over Sebastien Buemi’s car for the day but only managed 13th fastest time, proving to be slower than Mahindra’s Sam Dejonghe. Albon was partnered in the French team by double Japanese F3 champion, Mitsunori Takaboshi.
Albon was in-line to replace Nicolas Prost at the end of 2018 and become Buemi’s teammate as the GEN2 era of Formula E arrived. However, a last minute call-up to drive for Toro Rosso in F1 ended that plan, allowing future champion Oliver Rowland to claim the seat for the 2018-19 season.
Mueller breaks through, Marrakesh 2018
Then a DTM regular with the Audi ABT team, Mueller got his first real runs in a Formula E car at the same test that Albon frequented in January 2018.
Unlike Albon, Mueller shone. Topping both of the sessions that day, the Swiss impressed team boss Allan McNish greatly with his speed and aptitude, as he opened up a huge 0.9s advantage over his nearest pursuer, who was Pietro Fittipaldi in the Jaguar that was usually driven by Nelson Piquet Jnr.
Mueller also topped the times at the same venue 12 months on, again for Audi. This time it led to a chance of a drive for the Dragon team, with whom he scored a memorable second place at the infamous Valencia E-Prix in April, 2021 before going on to race for ABT, Andretti and Porsche.
Nasr’s Dragon Farce, Marrakesh 2019
Felipe Nasr, then an IMSA front runner for the Action Express team, was sweet-talked in to testing for the GEOX Dragon team in early 2019. But he never actually got to drive out of the pits.
In farcical circumstances, Nasr made the long journey from the U.S but was unable to venture out on track due to a dispute between Dragon and Action Express on him being eligible to run for the American entered team from a contractual standpoint.
It was eventually resolved and Nasr raced for the team in Hong Kong, Mexico City and Sanya with disastrous results that only brought one finish, in 19th place at the Circuit Hermanos Rodriguez.
Vanthoor’s Berlin blitz, Berlin 2024
Dries Vanthoor, one of the quickest current FIA WEC driver with the BMW WRT squad, made a very brief Formula E debut at the May, 2024 rookie test at Berlin Tempelhof.
The Belgian ace flew in especially to the event with BMW stablemate Robin Frijns but was soon apologising to his friend after an accident that saw him cause significant damage to the Envision Jaguar.
It ended Vanthoor’s involvement in Formula E there and then, but he has since gone on to great things at BMW with a victory in this year’s Sao Paulo E-Prix alongside Kevin Magnussen and Sheldon van der Linde at the 6 Hours of Sao Paulo, Interlagos.
Chadwick and O’Sullivan Collide, Jeddah 2025
One things teams don’t want in a rookie test is a damaged car but no one seemed to tell Jamie Chadwick and Zak O’Sullivan at Jeddah in February 2025 when the two collided in unfortunate circumstances.
What made it worse was that both were driving Jaguar GEN3Evo cars at the time, as Chadwick was in Nick Cassidy’s car and O’Sullivan in Sebastien Buemi’s Jag!
The incident was embarrassing more than damaging as both cars had cosmetic damage only. Chadwick continues to be an occasional broadcaster at E-Prixs, while O’Sullivan went on to grab an Envision race seat ahead of the forthcoming GEN4 era.
