Italian Formula 4 driver Elia Weiss will become the youngest ever driver to take the wheel of a Formula E car next month after being selected to test with the Porsche factory team.
Weiss, who was 16 last Sunday, will join DTM driver Ayhancan Güven at Porsche for the day-long rookie test at Berlin Tempelhof on Monday, July 14.
Prior to Weiss competing in the test, the youngest person to drive a Formula E car was current Formula 3 driver Ugo Ugochukwu, who had just turned 17 last May when he tested for McLaren at Berlin Tempelhof.
After taking the 2024 German karting championship title, Weiss is now racing in a Formula 4 car for the first time this year with Cram Motorsport in Italy. He is part of the Motorsport Team Germany of the ADAC’s sports foundation (ADAC Stiftung Sport) and the German motorsport federation DMSB’s junior programme for talented young racers this year, and is competing in his first season of competition out of karts.
He will join the Porsche team the day after competing in the latest round of the Italian F4 series at Mugello.
The Race understands that Porsche director of factory motorsport for Formula E, Florian Modlinger and director of team management & business relations for Porsche Motorsport, Carlo Wiggers, both spotted Weiss two years ago at the Karting World Cup finals in Franciacorta in Italy and that Weiss has already sim tested for the nascent Audi Formula 1 programme.
The Munich-born driver qualifies for an International B licence to take part in the test despite having only completed 11 F4 races this season.
The ADAC/DMSB initiative supports talented youngsters from up to 10 disciplines in car and motorcycle racing. The programme includes simulator tests in the motorsport departments of Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, and Porsche. It was at the latter sim session where Weiss is believed to have caught the eye of Porsche engineers.
Talking about the selection process for the test, Modlinger said that the strict limits on budgets and test days in Formula E was a reason why teams are being creative with drivers that are chosen.
“The teams are somewhat reluctant to invest resources in drivers that they find it difficult to assess because they have never driven this kind of vehicle before,” he said.
“However, we do need to see external drivers in our cars. The energy management is complex, which means that the mental challenges in particular are incredibly tough in Formula E. This reduces the pool of potential drivers. So, it makes sense for the rookie test to be mandatory for all teams.
“Elia turned 16 just a few days ago, but he comes across as a much more mature racing driver.”
“Ayhancan was part of our own junior squad, is known to us, and is currently performing well in the DTM. Elia comes from the Motorsport Team Germany, which is supported by Porsche Motorsport. While he was a guest in our simulator, we were particularly impressed by how he interacted with the engineers.”
Weiss addressed the huge step up in power he will experience at Tempelhof, saying that “the fact that I get to do this is insane. It’s a huge step for me, which is why I have a lot of respect for it.
“But I’ve already practiced in the simulator in Weissach. It was all really positive: I was able to get to know the systems, felt right at home there, and got on really well with the engineers. Other than that, I’m preparing myself as best I can. In a Formula E car, you need a lot of strength and fitness, so I’m training particularly hard in those areas at the moment.”
Güven said that “as a sim racer it’s easy for me to transfer my impressions of the virtual track to the real thing as quickly as possible.
"These are going to be exhausting weeks: before Berlin, I’ll be competing in the 24-hour races at the Nürburgring and in Spa, as well as in the DTM at the Norisring. It’s all happening in quick succession, and I’m giving it my all."
News that Porsche will thrust a 16-year-old unknown into one of its cars for the rookie test next month is a major surprise and a big story for Formula E, which, away from rookie tests, has an average age of its race drivers nudging 31 years of age.
The surprise comes, not because Weiss is so inexperienced, but because all of Porsche’s rivals are using much more experienced racers that are guaranteed to provide useful feedback and data knowledge.
That’s not to say that someone of Weiss’ inexperience will not be useful but it certainly carries more potential risk than having a Jak Crawford, Jamie Chadwick, Theo Pourchaire, Zak O’Sullivan or Alex Dunne at the wheel, as all of them have much more experience of driving these complex Gen3Evo cars.
In the last two seasons experienced international drivers Sheldon van der Linde and Dries Vanthoor both damaged cars – with Jaguar and Envision - at the test, badly in the case of Vanthoor. Such incidents at the current stage of the season and just 10 days before cars will be on their wheels for the likely crucial London ExCeL finale also have an element of jeopardy.
In the context of Porsche being in the fight for two world championships - the teams' and manufacturers' title races - it is unorthodox to blood-in a driver with such little overall experience.
But 21-year-old McLaren signing Taylor Barnard’s heroics this season, after such limited running, are undoubtedly resonating in the Formula E paddock, and permeating a vibe that the next iteration of Formula E cars (Gen4) could benefit younger single-seater drivers rather than rewarding solid experience. Therefore, perhaps some kind of fashion shift might come teenagers’ ways in the near future should the likes of Weiss excel in Berlin.
Lead image courtesy of Porsche
Porsche: Elia Weiss, Ayhancan Güven
Andretti: Jak Crawford, Frederik Vesti
Jaguar: Jamie Chadwick, TBD
Envision: Zak O’Sullivan, Johnathan Hoggard
Nissan: Abbi Pulling, Gabriele Mini
McLaren: Alex Dunne, Ella Lloyd
DS Penske: Nikita Bedrin, TBD
Maserati MSG: Theo Pourchaire, TBD
Lola Yamaha: Richard Verschoor, Alessandro Giusti
Mahindra: Kush Maini, TBD
CUPRA KIRO: Bianca Bustamante, TBD
Bold = confirmed
Italics = likely