FE | Shwartzman finishes the rookie tests in Berlin ahead, Minì does well

After two intense days of action on the track in Berlin, Formula E stopped in the German capital for a further day of testing, however dedicated exclusively to rookies. In addition to some confirmations, who had already participated in other sessions for rookies only, some new faces were also seen, with quite interesting names coming from different categories in the motorsport panorama.

The best time was set by one of those drivers who is already in his fourth session with the Gen 3, namely Robert Shwartzman, who stopped the clock at 1:01.937. The DS driver, reserve for the Ferrari team in F1 and driver of the AF Corce 499P in the WEC, recorded his best time during the last hour of testing, when the track temperature was around 40°C, making him the He is the only one to break the 1:02 barrier.

Furthermore, although it is difficult to compare test data with qualifying data given the different environmental conditions, the best time set by Shwartzman is only a tenth slower than the time that earned Jake Dennis pole position on Sunday morning for race 2. The gap widens if the comparison is made with the fastest time of the entire weekend, the one with which Edoardo Mortara obtained pole position on Saturday, but the gap still remains under two tenths.

The DS Penske driver completed a total of 82 laps throughout the day, also being the fastest in the morning session, where he stopped the clock at 1:02.150.

Almost two tenths behind Shwartzman, Jak Crawford ended the day in second place with Andretti, in what was the American driver’s absolute debut in Formula E. Third place went to Sheldon van der Linde, the South African who had already participated in last year’s test for rookies, while his brother Kelvin competed last weekend for Abt in place of Nico Muller, who was also busy in the WEC at Spa with Peugeot.

Fourth time of the day for another “old” acquaintance of Formula E, namely Felipe Drugovich, who was recently announced as one of the drivers of the Cadillac #311 lineup for the 24h of Le Mans. The 2022 F2 champion, who currently serves as a simulator driver for Aston Martin, once again drove for Maserati, finishing with a time of 1:02.171, 10 thousandths of a second behind Van Der Linde in the Jaguar. In the morning, the Brazilian had driven the Tipo Folgore to second place just behind Shwartzman, while in the afternoon he was forced to miss part of the session after his car stalled at the exit of turn 4, causing a red flag.

Felipe Drugovich, Maserati Racing

Photo by: Andreas Beil

The Mahindra Kush duo Maini and Frederick Vesti finished in fifth and seventh position respectively, a good result considering that for both it was their debut on a Formula E. Maini, in fact, had not taken part in the free practice at Misano, where his place was led by Jordan King, who replaced Nyck de Vries during the two ePrixes in Berlin last week. The Indian joined the team at the beginning of this year after the departure of Jehan Daruvala, while for Vesti it is a first approach to the electric world.

The Mercedes F1 Junior driver and last year’s F2 runner-up was third in the morning session and seventh overall, with his time of 1:02.227 recorded in the first part of the day only marginally faster than that achieved in the afternoon. Enzo Fittipaldi was inserted between the two Mahindras, making his debut with Jaguar.

Eighth time went to Zane Maloney with the other Andretti, now an almost “fixed” acquaintance for Formula E, while Gabriele Minì with the Nissan finished in ninth place, about half a second from the top. For the Italian driver, who is part of the Alpine Academy and is currently involved in Formula 3 with Prema, it was the absolute debut in Formula E. Among other things, as confirmed by Team Principal Tommaso Volpe to Motorsport.com, the The decision to field the Italian only came in the last few weeks, so there wasn’t even much time to prepare for the simulator test.

Minì had closed the morning in fifth place after momentarily taking the lead of the standings with about an hour to go, while in the afternoon he managed to lower his time by about a tenth, which earned him a non-place finish. Closing out the top ten is Caio Collet with the other Nissan, who had already taken part in the free practice session at Misano.

Two red flags interrupted the day, but the first interruption, which occurred in the second hour of the morning session, had important consequences: Dries Vanthoor ended up in the barriers with the Envision at turn 3 to avoid another car. Damage to his car, which had been driven by Joel Eriksson at the weekend, prevented Vanthoor from taking to the track again for the rest of the day.

The second Envision, driven by Alice Powell, finished the day in 21st place overall with a fast time of 1.03.454. The British rider, who is part of the reserves of the team that takes care of the simulator, concentrated on the development work, putting together a total of 56 laps, the maximum of the afternoon session.

The reigning F1 Academy champion Marta Garcia ended the day in eighteenth place, placing her ERT 1.225s from Shwartzman’s best time: as for other drivers, it was also her absolute debut for the young Spaniard, having never driven a Formula E car before.

Among the rookies, we also note the 15th place of Gregoire Saucy and the 20th of Ugo Ugochukwu with the two McLarens: the American, who until yesterday was engaged in the first seasonal test of the Formula Regional, is part of the development program of the team from Woking and this test represents a chance to broaden one’s horizons, although the main objective clearly remains Formula 1.

Also worth mentioning is Nicolas Pino’s nineteenth in the other Maserati. The Chilean recently joined the Stellantis program dedicated to young talents and, to be as prepared as possible for this test, he took part in some test sessions in Varano with DS, but not on the Gen 3, but on the old Gen 2. For Pino this is a very interesting evaluation program, which during the year should also lead him to complete a comparison test with the two official bearers of the Franco-American team.

Morning session:

Afternoon session: