A New ‘Cultural Success’?
The combined social media reach of the 11 Evo Session protagonists was calculated by Formula E to be ‘over a quarter of a billion.’ This does not include ‘Mr Beast’ who visited the event and drove the CUPRA KIRO car (briefly), contriving to shunt the Porsche 99X Electric on Thursday morning causing a small amount of damage to the front of Dan Ticktum’s car.
Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds and CUPRA KIRO co-owner Jeremy Tarica presented ‘Mr Beast’ with a signed portion of the front wing that he damaged. The uber-influencer is not the first celebrity to end up in the wall as Orlando Bloom and Chris Hemsworth each managed similar feats at Marrakesh and New York respectively.
Jeff Dodds acknowledged to FEN that for tams and drivers it was “uncomfortable” executing an event such as Evo Sessions part way through a season.
“I culturally look at this and say ‘well, a few months ago this didn’t exist’ and it was very uncomfortable for teams, uncomfortable for drivers, therefore uncomfortable for our business, but we’ve delivered it, and the vibe is ‘oh, okay, kind of work didn’t it, there’s some good stuff going on there.
“So, the more we can push and push and push and try new stuff, for me, the better. I look at it and say, even if we’d have got no views out of it, it would have been a functional failure but a cultural success,” concluded Dodds.
Formula E had a race director at the Evo Sessions as Marek Hanaczewski, who will formally become the full-time race director after Scott Elkins final race at Homestead in April, was on site. He is believed to have be working on an external agreement distinct from his FIA work as the event was not operating under the auspices of the FIA.
The whole of the Formula E teams freight which includes the 22 race cars was on site at the Miami Evo Sessions circuit on the site of the Miami International Autodrome. The circuit was a specially adapted as a 2917 metre track and used some of the same design as the Grand Prix which will take place in May for the fourth time.
Formula E, which raced on the streets of Miami in March 2015, has been talking to the city and Hard Rock Stadium for several years. However, the regularity of events in and around the stadium has proved difficult to schedule a race comfortably.
Getting eyes on the times set during the two days of testing was challenging with occasional leaks available to FEN. However, what is known is that Maserati MSG’s Stoffel Vandoorne set the fastest outright lap of 1m6.8s, while the fastest influencer laps was by Driver 61, Scott Mansell on a 1m7.911s in Zane Maloney’s Lola Yamaha ABT machine.
This time by Mansell was believed to be just 0.107s off Maloney’s benchmark time, however the conditions between when the duo went out were said to be significantly different. Mansell was once a professional racing driver and competed in Indy Lights and a one-off Superleague Formula E race as well as many other series, notably the BOSS F1 competition where he drove a 1997 spec Benetton.
Mansell told FEN that his first day at the wheel was “a bit of a truncated session, because I kept on getting too much peak pressure on the brakes. So, I’ve been practicing not pressing the brakes quite as hard today. Hopefully When you’re learning a new car on a new circuit, you want consecutive laps and I didn’t get that, unfortunately. But overall, it has been a fantastic experience, so enjoyable,” concluded Mansell.
Reigning champion Pascal Wehrlein praised Porsche guest, former professional Argentinian footballer Sergio Aguero, who impressed with third fastest time on day one of the sessions.
“Once I see someone driving, when I’m driving in front of him, with road cars or I see him driving in a simulator, I quickly get a good understanding of how talented he is and where it can lead to,” Wehrlein told FEN. “He (Aguero) was already quite good in the simulator. To be honest with you, he was only two seconds off, which is very impressive. He’s doing a lot of simulators as well at home, and he has one at home.”
Aguero ran with a decal on the inside of the front of the Porsche’s HALO which read ‘Cutting…Just my Lap Time’. This is believed to have been a reference to a comment made by the Argentinian last week ahead of his former club’s Champions League tie against Manchester City. This alluded to being quoted on a podcast as saying that he would “cut off my testicles” should City lose. True to their recent form City promptly capitulated. Aguero is the father of two children but any plans for a third are presently unknown.
Photo by Georgia Williams
As well as Driver61, Aguero (Porsche), Brooklyn Beckham (Jaguar) and JUCA (KIRO), Emelia Hartford also shone for Maserati MSG. The actress and custom car builder showed admirable commitment on the Miami track that triggered one team principal to comment to FEN that she would have been competitive at the all-female test held at Jarama last November. JUCA, Beckham and Hartford were separated by just 0.6s in second to fourth positions at the end of Thursday’s runs.
Do the Eyes Have it?
The success of the Evo Sessions won’t be known in detail for several weeks but the initiative was largely deemed to have been a positive one via the team bosses and drivers that FEN spoke to over the last week.
Nissan’s Tommaso Volpe said that the Evo Sessions had seen a “good performance so far but, sometimes, especially in terms of followers, you see the result after a few days and weeks, not when you immediately post things because you need to create a story and people look at it, and then they look at follow-up content.
“What is really interesting is that, from the social media perspective, this event will definitely expose our brands, not just Nissan, to a different audience. Which, I guess, it was also the objective, not just to reach for the sake of the reach, but the possibility to tell our story and the story of Formula E and why brands like Nissan are committed to Formula E to a different audience. This is interesting especially when you look at the fact that we are a motorsport category, but very keen on reaching different people.”
NEOM McLaren’s Ian James reckoned that Cleo Abram’s commitment to the Evo Sessions and the concept overall had been “interesting because none of us really knew what to expect.
“It’s something which is so new, groundbreaking in a way I suppose that we’ve been kind of making it up as we go along. And I think that’s been quite an interesting process to observe.
“I think we’ve been incredibly lucky with Cleo. Her approach, her work ethic, her enthusiasm for the whole thing has been phenomenal. But actually, taking a look up and down the paddock, I was speaking with one of the FEO lot on the way in, with Cara (Pelchen – Teams and Manufacturers Partnership Director) and she said that I think Brooklyn (Beckham) was here super early this morning, before you even needed to be here.
“So, it just goes to show there’s a real enthusiasm from the talent, about what this stands for and the opportunities and so on and so forth. So that’s been great. So by and large I think, despite the fear of the unknown at the beginning, I think it’s actually sort of turned out quite well.”
Testing
Some teams scrambled back to Europe quickly after the Evo Session to get ready for upcoming tests. Among them are Lola Yamaha ABT and Envision Racing who will undertake programmes at the Monteblanco and Calafat circuits respectively.
Like most manufacturers Jaguar are known to have few private test days left and are bound by the registration agreement of having to give some to Envision. Sebastien Buemi told FEN in Miami that “we’re going to Calafat next week. We’ve had a very bad weekend in Jeddah but we’ll try to bounce back on that. I mean, we had a great qualifying in Mexico before we got disqualified, so I still feel like we have the pace. I’m convinced we’ll be better.”
AOB
Plans for Maserati MSG to announce details of its new ownership via an investment group headed by former DJ and NASA employee Brooklyn Earick have been postponed. Earick was announced vis Formula E’s qualifying coverage last month in Jeddah as the new CEO and Chairman of MSG. Details are expected to be revealed later this month.
Formula E moves on to Homestead south of Miami for its next round on April 12. Although the circuit configuration has not yet been disclosed to teams FEN understands that it will follow the conventional infield track with one added chicane on the backstraight.
A Homestead preview podcast via The Race will be available in early April featuring DS Penske’s Phil Charles. The episode will also feature a lookback at the Evo Sessions with input from Jeff Dodds and NEOM McLaren’s Ian James. Catch up on previous episodes of the podcast HERE.
CUPRA KIRO has recently hired former Mahindra marketing senior account manager James Taylor, who worked at the Indian manufacturer between 2018 and 2022
The Andretti team is asking for fans to choose between two new liveries for its home race at Homestead next month. An ‘Ocean Drive’ or ‘Deep Atlantic’ scheme will be used by the team depending on which wins the most votes via its social media platforms.
Women at the Double!
A second running of the all-female Formula E test will take place later this year at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia. The confirmation was made today by Formula E on International Women’s Day.
“Developing the next generation of Formula E drivers is a cornerstone of our focus in the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, and as part of this strategy, we are also committed to fostering diversity and inclusion. With this expanded initiative, we keep working with Formula E towards offering a level playing field for women and men’s drivers”, said Pablo Martino, Head of Formula E, FIA, said:
“Formula E and the FIA’s ongoing commitment to attracting the best drivers in the world within motorsport is reflected not only in this expanded test but also in its broader initiatives to support women at every level of the sport. This includes the FIA Girls on Track initiative that hosts 120 young women at track the day before each of its races for immersive educational workshops and talks, helping them understand more about science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects, while getting a rare and unique insight into what it’s like working in motorsport.”
Additional Reporting by Georgia Williams
