DTM race winner and youngest-ever rookie fill out Porsche's Berlin Formula E test line-up

TAG Heuer Porsche will field Ayhancan Güven and Elia Weiss at the upcoming Formula E rookie test in Berlin.

Güven has been in the Porsche fold since 2020, when he joined the Porsche junior team following a successful karting and sim racing career – the latter involved being teammates with Max Verstappen. The 27-year-old Turkish driver currently races for Manthey EMA in the DTM, and won his first two races earlier this season at Oschersleben and Zandvoort.

“This is a pretty unique opportunity for me,” said Güven. “As a driver with a GT racing background, sitting in the middle of the car without a roof over my head is an experience I’m really looking forward to. I was at the track in Berlin four years ago – as a spectator. To be able to drive there now is, of course, fantastic.

“The Porsche 99X Electric has a lot of systems I’m not familiar with, which will probably be the biggest challenge. The preparation takes place in the simulator in Weissach. As a sim racer, however, it’s easy for me to transfer my impressions of the virtual track to the real thing as quickly as possible.”

Weiss meanwhile, at 16, will be the youngest driver to drive a Formula E car when he runs in Berlin. He got the required international B licence issued by the DMSB upon turning 16 (the license’s minimum required age) last week.

The German won last year’s German karting championship and is racing in Italian Formula 4 this season with Cram Motorsport. He is also a member of Motorsport Team Germany, an initiative that includes simulator tests in the motorsport departments of Audi, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, and Porsche.

“I’m incredibly proud – no doubt everyone dreams of being able to drive for Porsche,” said Weiss. “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.

“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.”

Porsche team principal Florian Modlinger commented that testing restrictions in Formula make it hard to evaluate young drivers regularly, making the mandatory annual rookie test an important event for all teams.

“There are strict limits on budgets and test days in Formula E, which is why 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.

“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. Elia turned 16 just a few days ago, but he comes across as a much more mature racing driver.”

The Formula E Rookie Test will take place at Tempelhof Airport on Monday July 14, the day after the double-header race event on the temporary circuit at the facility.