Sylvain Filippi has taken up the chairman’s position at the Formula E Teams and Manufacturers Association, taking over from previous incumbent Roger Griffiths.
The Paysafe Envision chief technology officer and team principal will undertake his second stint in the role after previously filling the position between 2017 and 2019, replacing the outgoing Roger Griffiths, who stood down after completing his maximum two year stint and who moved in to a different role at the TWG Group of companies that owns the Andretti Formula E team.
Filippi is now the only ever-present team principal on the grid having started with the Virgin Racing Formula E Team in 2014, initially as the CTO of the company before becoming the tea principal when it was taken over by Envision in 2018.
He will work with Citroen Racing deputy team principal, Frederic Espinos, who will continue his role in as secretariat of the organisation which now encompasses 12 representatives across the grid, one from each entrant.
“I’m looking forward to working with the teams, manufacturers, FEO and FIA as we enter a pivotal moment for the sport in the GEN4 era,” Filippi told Formula E Notebook this week.
“This represents a hugely exciting step forward for Formula E, both in terms of the technology and the racing, but it also brings important opportunities and challenges as the championship continues to evolve. It’s a critical time to have a collective voice and help shape the direction of Formula E, and I’m motivated to get started and contribute to that process.”
The FETAMA group also works with experienced motorsport commercial and legal consultant, Kate Beavan, who also continues in an advisory capacity with FETAMA in to the GEN4 period.
FETAMA, which moved from the UK to Switzerland earlier this year, is also organising the Valencia test which is taking place today as a pre Jarama run for several teams. Seven teams were in action at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo today – Nissan, Opel, Citroen, CUPRA Kiro, Andretti, Paysafe Envision and Jaguar.
What is FETAMA’s role in Formula E?
FETAMA, which started as FETA in the first generation of Formula E (2014-18) was initially led by Virgin Racing team principal Alex Tai and legal consultant Oliver Weingarten.
It was formed to initially cover off commercial and marketing matters in the Formula E paddock before it expanded to include manufacturer that came in to the all-electric championship from GEN2 (2018) onward.
Former team principals Dilbagh Gill (Mahindra) and James Barclay (Jaguar) have each had stints as chairman, as has current Jaguar boss Ian James, who filled the role when at the McLaren team.
“It’s really to help steer where we go from a teams and manufacturers perspective, a way to have our collective voice, and the collective is the important bit,” outgoing chairman, Roger Griffiths, told the Racers Voice podcast last month.
“Because what was happening in the early days was a lot of ‘yeah, yeah, yeah. We’ll talk about this. We’ll do this.’ Then somebody would go around the back door and have a conversation directly with the FIA.
“So, we tried to stop that. In my first term, one of the things that I was adamant about was, as one voice we’re much stronger than 10 or 11 individual voices. We were able to make some changes, whether they were on the commercial side, the sporting side, or whatever, to help drive it.”
FETAMA is understood to have been successful in negotiating an improved commercial agreement for the GEN4 era via a process that lasted for almost a full year. The official signing of it is expected to take place at Jarama next week.
