REPORT: Mahindra's Naël quickest overall at the Madrid Rookie Test

Théophile Naël was the quickest driver across the Madrid Rookie Test, setting the best time of the day for Mahindra Racing in the morning session with a 1m29.216s.

Analysis

22 Mar '26

REPORT: Mahindra's Naël quickest overall at the Madrid Rookie Test

The sun was shining for much of the test, as 20 of motorsport’s best and brightest talents got behind the wheel of the GEN3 Evo around the Circuito del Jarama. The annual test is usually held in Berlin, but switched locations for Season 12 and is an excellent place for teams and manufacturers to find the next big Formula E star.

After topping the morning’s session, Naël’s time couldn't be beaten across the day with the Formula E newbie seriously impressing the paddock. Usually racing in FIA Formula 3, the French driver was third best on the timesheets across the afternoon.

Mahindra Racing have looked quick all day, with their official Reserve Driver Kush Maini also getting the third best time of the day with a 1m29.330s.

Nikita Bedrin was quickest in the afternoon session for DS PENSKE, with a time of 1m29.250s, but it wasn’t enough to beat the benchmark that Naël had set earlier in the day.

Several red flags disrupted proceedings this morning, with these rookies still familiarising themselves with the cars and the challenging Jarama circuit, but this afternoon, the only pause was to help clear up gravel at Turn 3.

Pos	Driver	Nationality	Team	Best Time	Gap
1	Théophile Naël	FRA	Mahindra Racing	1:29.216	--
2	Nikita Bedrin	ITA	DS Penske	1:29.250	+0.034
3	Kush Maini	IND	Mahindra Racing	1:29.330	+0.114
4	Victor Martins	FRA	Nissan Formula E	1:29.888	+0.672
5	Daniil Kvyat	ITA	DS Penske	1:29.956	+0.740
6	Zak O'Sullivan	GBR	Envision Racing	1:30.025	+0.809
7	Théo Pourchaire	FRA	Citroën Racing	1:30.175	+0.959
8	Freddie Slater	GBR	Andretti Formula E	1:30.390	+1.174
9	Ayhancan Güven	TUR	Porsche Formula E	1:30.398	+1.182
10	Callum Voisin	GBR	Andretti Formula E	1:30.526	+1.310
11	Abbi Pulling	GBR	Nissan Formula E	1:30.708	+1.492
12	Joshua Durksen	PAR	Citroën Racing	1:30.756	+1.540
13	Richard Verschoor	NED	Lola Yamaha ABT	1:31.015	+1.799
14	Hugh Barter	AUS	Lola Yamaha ABT	1:31.266	+2.050
15	Cian Shields	GBR	Cupra Kiro	1:31.519	+2.303
16	Elia Weiss	GER	Porsche Formula E	1:31.993	+2.777
17	Bryce Aron	USA	Jaguar TCS Racing	1:32.108	+2.892
18	Bianca Bustamante	PHI	Cupra Kiro	1:32.467	+3.251
19	Ella Lloyd	GBR	Envision Racing	1:33.133	+3.917
20	Juju Noda	JPN	Jaguar TCS Racing	1:33.194	+3.978

Who was driving for the 2026 Madrid Rookie Test?

Here is the full confirmed list of drivers that took part in the Madrid Rookie Test:

Team	Driver	Driver
Andretti	Freddie Slater	Callum Voisin
Citroën Racing	Théo Pourchaire	Joshua Dürksen
CUPRA KIRO	Bianca Bustamante	Cian Shields
DS PENSKE	Nikita Bedrin	Daniil Kvyat
Envision Racing	Ella Lloyd	Zak O'Sullivan
Jaguar TCS Racing	Juju Noda	Bryce Aron
Lola Yamaha ABT	Hugh Barter	Richard Verschoor
Mahindra Racing	Kush Maini	Théophile Naël
Nissan	Abbi Pulling	Victor Martins
Porsche	Elia Weiss	Ayhancan Güven