Naël Leads Jarama Rookie Test as Formula E’s Next Wave Makes Its Case

Théophile Naël posted a 1:29.216 in the morning session for Mahindra Racing and nobody touched it. Twenty drivers ran the GEN3 Evo across six hours at Circuito del Jarama on the day after the inaugural 2026 CUPRA Raval Madrid E-Prix, with the Rookie Test switching from its usual Berlin base to Jarama for Season 12. DS PENSKE’s Nikita Bedrin pushed hardest in the afternoon with a 1:29.250, with Daniil Kvyat alongside him for the team, but the gap held. The field behind them included a reigning DTM champion, the 2023 F2 champion, F1 development drivers, WEC Hypercar signings, and four graduates of Formula E’s All-Women’s Test. Jarama had one race’s worth of data behind it. These rookies had six hours to make use of it.

Key Points: 2026 Formula E Rookie Test

• Théophile Naël (Mahindra Racing) set the overall fastest time of 1:29.216 in the morning session, a benchmark that held all day
• Nikita Bedrin (DS PENSKE) topped the afternoon with 1:29.250, finishing P2 overall by just 0.034 seconds
• Kush Maini, Mahindra’s official reserve driver, completed the top three with a 1:29.330, giving Mahindra a session one-two
• Twenty drivers ran across two three-hour sessions at Circuito del Jarama, the first time the Rookie Test has been held outside Berlin
• Abbi Pulling, Ella Lloyd, Juju Noda and Bianca Bustamante all competed, each having previously run in Formula E’s All-Women’s Test
• Victor Martins, Zak O’Sullivan, Théo Pourchaire and Daniil Kvyat among the headline names across the entry

The Circuit and the Challenge

Jarama is not a circuit that forgives errors. The race the day before showed that. Da Costa, Evans and Wehrlein covered less than half a second across the finish line after 23 laps and 90 kilometres, energy management deciding who had enough left to fight. Turn 3 caught drivers out across the weekend, the final chicane is where positions change hands and where mistakes get made, and the GEN3 Evo’s energy deployment window is narrow enough that arriving at a braking zone with the wrong number on the dashboard costs time you don’t get back. For rookies in the car for the first time, those demands arrive all at once. The ones who adapted quickly showed up on the timing sheet.

Naël Sets the Standard

Théophile Naël came into Jarama less established outside Formula 3 than most names in this field. He left it as the fastest driver on the sheet. Running for Mahindra Racing, Naël went quickest in the morning session with a 1:29.216, with reserve driver Kush Maini backing him up in second to give the team a session one-two. Naël stayed third in the afternoon. The benchmark never fell. It was controlled from the start. He found the demands of the GEN3 Evo early and never moved away from them.

Bedrin Leads DS PENSKE’s Afternoon Push

DS PENSKE came closest. Nikita Bedrin went quickest in the afternoon with a 1:29.250, just 0.034 seconds off the overall pace, to finish P2 on the combined sheet. Daniil Kvyat ran alongside him throughout and ended up fifth overall, giving DS PENSKE the strongest multi-driver showing of any team across both sessions. Bedrin had never driven Jarama before. Getting within a tenth by the afternoon says something about how quickly he read the circuit’s energy demands.

The Stories Behind the Times

Two drivers arrived at the Rookie Test having already committed to Hypercar programmes for 2026. Victor Martins, the 2022 FIA Formula 3 champion now with Alpine’s WEC entry, was back at Nissan Formula E Team in his first GEN3 Evo outing. He ran eleventh in the morning and fourth in the afternoon once the car started to make sense. That sort of jump in one session gets attention. Théo Pourchaire, the 2023 F2 champion, Mercedes development driver, and Peugeot Hypercar driver, ran seventh overall for Citroën Racing, adding Formula E machinery to a CV that is already pulling in several directions.

Zak O’Sullivan was the adaptation story of the morning. Sixth overall for Envision Racing despite going through the gravel at Turn 3 early in session one, he recovered and stayed competitive through the afternoon. Ayhancan Güven, the reigning DTM Champion, was ninth overall for Porsche Formula E Team. DTM and Formula E ask completely different things, especially in how you build a lap around energy rather than just grip. Güven got close enough to the pace to show the ability is there.

Freddie Slater and Callum Voisin ran P8 and P10 for Andretti. Richard Verschoor and Hugh Barter covered Lola Yamaha ABT in P13 and P14. Joshua Durksen supported Pourchaire at Citroën in P12. Bryce Aron and Elia Weiss rounded out Jaguar and Porsche in P17 and P16.

Pulling and the Women’s Test Graduates

Abbi Pulling, Ella Lloyd, Juju Noda and Bianca Bustamante all ran, each having previously taken part in Formula E’s All-Women’s Test. The same machinery, the same sessions, the same timing sheet as Kvyat, O’Sullivan and Martins. Pulling finished P11 overall. That is not a result that needs a qualifier attached to it. Eleventh from twenty drivers, in a field with that kind of pedigree, on a circuit that punished anyone who didn’t read the energy deployment correctly. That is a competitive result, full stop.

Pulling ran a structured programme for Nissan across both sessions, covering energy management, set-up options and race simulations in 300 and 350kW power modes. Volpe spoke about her value to the engineering programme specifically, not just her presence in the car. Bustamante ran P18 overall for CUPRA KIRO alongside debutant Cian Shields, the pair completing 123 combined laps and bringing back data ahead of Berlin. Lloyd finished P19 for Envision, Noda P20 for Jaguar, both completing their full programmes.

Final Classification – Madrid Rookie Test 2026

Coffee Corner Take

This is what the Rookie Test is actually for. Not a box-ticking exercise at the end of a race weekend. A genuine opportunity for drivers who don’t yet have a seat to put something on a timing sheet that people in the paddock have to pay attention to. Naël did exactly that. A Formula 3 driver in a field that included Kvyat, O’Sullivan and Martins, on a circuit that had just shown the race team how unforgiving its energy demands are, and he was fastest. All day. That result does not get ignored.

Formula E keeps building the ladder and keeps making the rungs real. Pulling at P11, in a field with that pedigree, running a full engineering programme. Not just turning laps. Bustamante completing 123 laps and bringing data back. Four Women’s Test graduates treated the same as everyone else on that sheet, because that is exactly what they were.

Some drivers leave a test day with data on a USB stick. A few leave it with a career conversation that wasn’t there the day before. Naël most obviously. But not only him.