Ever wondered if a Formula E rookie test is merely a box-ticking exercise? This year's one proved that is emphatically not the case.
Here's what we learned about the drivers looking to unseat some of the current Formula E crop, those being evaluated for futures in the electric series, one junior sensation who lived up to their reputation and more from the six hours of running at Jarama.
Martins adding to Nato pressure
Norman Nato's 11th-place finish in the Madrid E-Prix last Saturday meant that the Nissan driver has scored three points across the last 12 races since he finished sixth in the first Shanghai race last June.
Pressure has long since mounted on Nato, amid several difficult races in which combined team and driver errors have mounted up alarmingly.
Nato though has been quick and sometimes outpaced team-mate and reigning champion Oliver Rowland. But with his run of non-scores now extended to four races, Nissan will be evaluating its options in the six-week break before the Berlin double-header in early May.
Those options include experienced reserve and test driver Sam Bird and sometime tester and current Alpine World Endurance Championship driver Victor Martins. The Race understands that Martins's inclusion in the Jarama test could have influenced whether Nissan is inclined to make an immediate change for the second half of the season.
The test was a strong one for Martins, who set the fourth-fastest time overall of 1m29.888s on Sunday afternoon. But it was his consistency at 300kW running that really pleased the team, which used the test to try to get on top of several issues that have affected its recent results.
Martins was the fastest of the 300kW runners across the day, setting a 1m31.881s, a time that just shaded the best from Formula 2 race winner Richard Verschoor, who also impressed for Lola-Yamaha Abt.
"We have had races where we didn't score any points but even with Oliver too and he's the world champion," Tomaso Volpe, Nissan team principal, told The Race.
"Because Norman had a precedent last season it is easy to point fingers at him but I think overall the team this season is not doing a great job and yesterday [Saturday] was disappointing for everyone."
When asked whether or not the team may look at making a change in-season, Volpe said that at present he "cannot give a definite answer".
"We will look at the data and what went wrong after the attack mode and PitBoost window with Norman," he said. "I'm not very inclined in changing things during the season and I don't see us doing it but we will evaluate everything at base."
Audi junior Slater wows Andretti
Four female drivers entered the test, with the reasonably experienced Abbi Pulling (Nissan) and Bianca Bustamante (Cupra Kiro) being joined by Ella Lloyd (Envision) and Juju Noda (Jaguar).
Pulling was consistently the fastest of the quartet and set a best time of 1m30.708s to end up 11th. That time was faster than those managed by the likes of F2 race winner Joshua Durksen (Citroen) and Verschoor, among others, in what was her best showing in a Formula E car so far.
Pulling also revealed that she had been carrying an injury at the Valencia test last November and that she felt much stronger during Sunday's running.
"I jumped into it and felt right at home and we went straight into race-running stuff," Pulling told The Race.
"From when I first drove here to now, it's like, I feel like a different driver. Again, the confidence, I know the team now much better and I'm much stronger."
Context:
Martins impressed Nissan with consistent 300kW pace, potentially influencing mid-season driver decisions.
Context:
Nato's poor scoring streak puts his Formula E seat at risk as Nissan evaluates alternatives for Berlin races.
Context:
Audi junior Slater's professional approach at Andretti caught attention in the final Gen3 rookie test.