The highly anticipated Evo Sessions took place this week at the Miami International Autodrome, with selected celebs/personalities having around thirty minutes per day to evidence how difficult the Gen3Evo Formula E cars are to handle. This was a private event but worry not! Formula E Notebook was there and have the full run down for you.
Wednesday (5 March) was the first day of the two-day event and the event was opened to us with a ‘welcome chat’ with Jeff Dodds (CEO) and Ellie Norman (CMO).
One of the big questions was how success will be determined through the Evo Sessions event, and what metrics are going to be used by Formula E to evidence it.
Formula E’s chief marketing officer Ellie Norman told FEN that “indicators today are super, super positive, and so far a new audience to Formula E has been 69% (Instagram). So that’s a brilliant indicator that it is having the right impact.”.
With the increase of new audiences to Formula E being 69% before the event had even happened, the inclusion and presence of the biggest YouTuber of all time, MrBeast, crashing a Formula E car should boost that stat through the roof.
When asked about releasing specifics relating to their metrics, Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds said, “I think we will release them when it’s appropriate to. But not with a chest thumpy ‘aren’t we clever haven’t we done a great job’. I think we’ll release them more to a’ look there’s a lot of interest around this.’”
It’s fair to say that an event of this capacity with minimal time to prepare, there were always going to be logistical and organisational challenges for Formula E. Both Dodds and Norman have remained vocal that this won’t be a ‘one-and-done’ event and when asked if this could be an annual inclusion around the existing calendar, Norman said, “it’s an all-in yes, let’s reflect, get the feedback, the learning because of course we can make improvements.”
Being on site was a strange feeling to anyone used to being in the high-pressure environment of race week. It felt far more laid back and almost relaxed, until it came to trying to speak to some of the talent. Sergio Aguero and Tom Felton were both supposed to have Round Tables with the media, initially on Wednesday but unfortunately Felton was deemed unfit to run on Thursday. Aguero simply just decided to leave the event and made the short trip back to his home in Miami. This was looking to be rescheduled for Thursday, however due to ‘limited time’, it wasn’t which was disappointing.
It proved a great time however to get interviews with drivers, engineers, and team principals because their schedules were relatively empty from a media perspective. With this not being an FIA sanctioned event, it was not competition focused which naturally relaxes the mood. Though I think it’s fair to say everyone did get competitive with lap times – notably and unsurprisingly former professional racer Driver 61(Scott Mansell).
FEN understands that Formula E did not provide a ‘brief’ to teams on the length or depth or training that their talent must complete before jumping in the Gen3Evo for real. Surprisingly, Supercar Blondie (Alex Hirschi) self admittedly completed very minimal training for the event.
“I probably should have prepared a little bit more, but they were just like, listen, it’s about having fun and experiencing what the sport is like and yes, take it seriously because this is a very powerful car, but also just be in the moment and experience it because not many people get to,” she said.
“So, I just did literally like three hours sim and then got straight behind the wheel here in Miami, which is kind of crazy.”
There was a clear distinction in this regard between the Nissan team and Porsche, as Wehrlein explained he first met Aguero in mid-January to begin preparations, with the ex-Manchester City goal accruing hero even committing to training on his own sim.
“There were a lot of areas where it feels normal for us, but you have to remind yourself what is actually important for someone racing for the first time and jumping into that car for the first time, just the normal basics,” Wehrlein told FEN.
“I think we did a good job by sticking to the basics because otherwise it would just be an overload of information.”
Fabrice Rousell, who is Wehrlein’s race engineer, was looking after Aguero for the Evo Sessions and he added that “when you start to do a project like this one, it’s more a matter of first of all safety for Sergio.
“Also just looking at the car because it’s one of the race cars which we’re fighting for the championship this year. So, from that perspective, if you commit to it, you want to do it fully so that just that everything is safe. Because the last thing he wants to do is to hurt himself on the track, because motorsport remains something dangerous.”
“And it’s proper race car they are driving,” continued Rousell. “The speed down the straight is like around 250 kilometres an hour. So, it’s some serious speed. You want to make sure that he can cope with that and he’s safe. So it’s just normal to give a decent amount of preparation.”
Over the coming weeks we’re sure we will start to hear more about the success of the event in statistics, social media reach and interactions, however the overall feel of the event in the Paddock was that the majority of teams and personnel had a pretty enjoyable week regardless.
It could ultimately be viewed as an expensive way to have an early-season experience/track day if the statistics don’t quite hit expectations. However, we’re sure Formula E are also reaping the immediate rewards of a quick turnaround to even get the Evo Sessions from concept to reality in such a short space of time.
