A Brief History of the Women Who Have Competed in Formula E
The history of women competing in Formula E goes all the way back to the very start of the series.
As the first of its kind all-electric racing series, Formula E has always prided itself on pushing the boundaries of what is possible. This has been most evident in the constant evolution of its race car, which has come a long way since the series first went racing back in 2014. Gone are the days when drivers needed to return to the pits mid-race in order to swap cars as their first one had run out of electrical power.
But one area where Formula E has had mixed results is in the number of women competing in the series. In the first two seasons of the sport, we did see female drivers in equal machinery to their male counterparts from one race weekend to the next. However, since the second season of Formula E back in 2015/2016, we’ve not had any full-time or part-time drivers.
Formula E does seem to be working at making progress on this front, though. This has been shown with the recent addition of both the all-female test sessions and the inclusion of more female drivers in the rookie Formula E test sessions. With the driver market for next season set to ramp up soon, we thought it was the perfect time to look back at the women who have already competed in the all-electric racing series as well as those who have taken to the track under test conditions. While they will have been the first, hopefully they won’t be the last, and perhaps one or two that have made headlines for the teams in recent sessions will be in contention for a full-time seat on the grid next season.
Before then, let’s familiarise ourselves with the women who have competed so far in Formula E.
Simona de Silvestro
Simona de Silvestro competed in the first two seasons of Formula E in 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. She was one of eight drivers to compete for the Andretti Autosport Formula E Team in that inaugural season. While Jean Eric Vergne was the mainstay driver for the majority of that season, the second seat in the team rotated on an almost round-by-round basis. De Silverstro came into the Championship for the final double header in London as part of this. Finishing just outside of the points in P11 and P12 across the last two races of the season, de Silvestro put up a fair performance in a series she’d only just been brought into.
Simona then returned for the following season with the now-renamed team of Amlin Andretti. She had two points finishes that season with a P9 finish in Long Beach and another P9 finish in Berlin. de Silvestro finished the season in eighteenth place overall and would not be retained for the following season.
However, de Silvestro would return to Formula E in 2018 for a test session in Saudi Arabia and then again in 2024 for the all-women’s test session held in Jarama, where she drove for what is now Cupra Kiro.
Michela Cerruti
Michela Cerruti competed in the first season of Formula E held across 2014 and 2015 for the Trulli Formula E Team. Cerruti competed in the first four races of the year and, while there, was sadly unable to rack up any points to her name. Her best result in that stint was a P12 finish in Uruguay. After this, she was replaced in the team for the majority of the rest of the season by Vitantonio Liuzzi. He himself only managed to achieve one point-scoring finish in his brief tenure, with a P9 finish in Berlin. He was then replaced by Alex Fontana who didn’t score any points at the final round of the series’ first season in London.
Katherine Legge
Katherine Legge was another woman who competed in the inaugural season of Formula E back in 2014/2015. Legge would only be in the two opening rounds of that season, which took place in Beijing and Uruguay. She had back-to-back P15 finishes for the Amlin Aguri Team before they replaced her with Mexico’s Salvador Duran. He went on to finish in the points on three occasions with a best finish of sixth in Moscow. Like de Silvestro, Legge would return for the test session in Saudi Arabia in 2018.
Test and Reserve Drivers
Since Formula E’s second season, there haven’t been any full-time or even part-time female drivers in the series. What the sport has lacked on this front, it has begun to counter by hosting three test sessions (two all-female) where a number of female racers of varied experiences from across the motorsport world have taken part, which has then been bolstered further by the presence of more female drivers in this year’s rookie test session in Madrid.
The first of these test sessions came back in 2018 in Ad Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Nine women took part on that occasion: Pippa Mann, Amna Al Qubaisi, Carrie Schreiner, Carmen Jordá, Beitske Visser, Jamie Chadwick, Simona de Silvestro, Tatiana Calderon and Katherine Legge. Jordá and Man finished the session in the top ten in their shared cars while Simona de Silvestro would finish as the highest placed female driver in P14.
Then, in 2024, Formula E announced the first all-female test session to be held in Jarama, Spain. Each team on the grid ran at least one female driver for the occasion. As before, there was a wide breadth and depth to the experience of each of the drivers taking to the track.
Jaguar TCS Racing had both Jamie Chadwick and Lilou Wadoux in their team, while TAG Heuer Porsche ran Gabriela Jilkova and Marta Garcia. DS PENSKE opted for Jessica Edgar and Beitske Visser, while Nissan was only able to run Abbi Pulling in their car after Sophia Flörsh had to pull out of the session at the last minute. Andretti selected Chloe Chambers and Nerea Marti, while Envision Racing took the youth of Alisha Palmowski and the experience of Alice Powell into their team for the session. NEOM McLaren was competing in Formula E at the time and took former and current McLaren Academy drivers Bianca Bustamante and Ella Lloyd into the fold as part of this. Maserati MSG Racing selected Tatiana Calderon and Carrie Schreiner, while Lola Yamaha ABT, Mahindra Racing, and Kiro Race Co. all had one driver each - Miki Koyama, Lena Buehler and Simona de Silvestro, respectively.
Abbi Pulling would be the quickest from the group, with Jamie Chadwick close behind her and Bianca Bustamante completing the top three.
Last year then saw the second running of the all-women’s test. DS Penske retained Jessica Edgar, but this time partnered her with Lindsay Brewer. Alice Powell returned once more to Envision Racing but was joined this time by Ella Lloyd. Abbi Pulling was once more in the session but this time with Citroen, alongside Tatiana Calderon, while Nerea Marti was the sole driver at Andretti. Jamie Chadwick was another name to return for the session, still with Jaguar TCS Racing but alongside Juju Noda on this occasion. Gabriela Jilkova and Janina Schall teamed up with Porsche and Lola Yamaha ABT, Mahindra Racing and Cupra Kiro, all opted for one driver each in Marta Garcia, Chloe Chambers and Bianca Bustamante, respectively.
It was Chloe Chambers this time out who would be the fastest driver out on track. But Abbi Pulling was hot on her heels, just 0.004 of a second behind her. Once again, Bianca Bustamante rounded out the top three.
Earlier this year, an all-Rookie Test was held in Madrid and saw a mix of male and female drivers for the session. There were four female drivers in total, all of which had prior Formula E experience: Bianca Bustamante, Ella Lloyd, Juju Noda and Abbi Pulling. Pulling would once again be the quickest of the female drivers taking part and finished in P11 overall.
Looking Ahead
Opel joins the Formula E grid next season. While they still debate who they’ll sign to race for them full time, they have made one decision in signing Sophia Flörsh as their Test and Reserve Driver. Coming to the team with a wealth of experience from Formula 3, DTM, the European Le Mans Series, Indy NXT and more, it’s a no-brainer why they decided to make Flörsh part of the team. One has to wonder, though, why they didn’t decide to make her the first full-time Formula E driver in over a decade.
While the test sessions, as well as Flörsh’s Opel appointment, have been steps in the right direction, many are still left wondering why none of the teams has signed any of these drivers to race for them across a full season. The talent is clearly there. But there’s no substitute for experience, and the only way that any of these women will get any is if they’re given the opportunity to. They’ve placed themselves in the best position possible, given the limited opportunities available to them to be chosen for a full season of racing. Now it’s up to the teams to take the next step.