How Formula E is counting on content creators to attract new fans

“I’m surprised they let that happen” admitted Brookyln Peltz Beckham after he and 10 other Formula E novices were given complete control of a GEN3 Evo car at the Miami Autodrome this week.

In a bold move, Formula E recruited 11 content creators and brought them to Florida, having assigned each of them a team and a driving coach, and gave them two days to get to grips with a car that accelerates faster than its Formula 1 equivalent.

Some fared better than others. Harry Potter star Tom Felton thoroughly enjoyed ticking off a childhood dream, but he was well off the pace of the fastest runners and had to sit out the second day through illness.

Tom Felton, Envision Racing Jaguar I-TYPE 7

Photo by: Joe Portlock / Motorsport Images

Beckham himself was pushing for a place in the top three and went seven seconds faster on day two than his first-day benchmark, but unsurprisingly it was the more experienced racers, Scott Mansell – aka Driver61 – and automobile content creator Juca Viapri who shone.

Former Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero also impressed – but for Formula E the timing sheets will not matter, the results are irrelevant.

What matters to the series is whether its strategy to bring in social media stars with a collective following of a quarter of a billion can translate into more fans of electric racing.

Speaking to Motorsport.com ahead of the event, Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds said that the Evo Sessions “show that we are determined to grow our overall fanbase, and we won't achieve that ambition by simply fishing in the motorsports pond”.

Instead, Formula E cast its line into the wide-open waters of social media, with content across Instagram, YouTube and TikTok from those behind the wheel racking up views and engagement.

A select group of more traditional media, including Motorsport.com, was invited along but the brave new world meant that interview requests and roundtable briefings were often shunned by the creators themselves.

MrBeast, whose YouTube channel boasts over 370 million subscribers – the most on the site – was also in attendance filming his own content for a later project with Formula E, so the social experiment is one the series is committed to.

While he filmed his sessions in secret, a spin and light shunt into the wall may not make the final edit when MrBeast – real name James Donaldson – releases the finished product.

“With the Evo Sessions, from a metrics point of view, the first thing is: how do we grow our awareness, how do we build our fame?” Formula E chief marketing officer Ellie Norman explained to Motorsport.com.

“What we're seeing is from a video point of view, with the 11 creators and personalities that we've brought together, already that was over 250 million followers, then we add MrBeast and it's ginormous.

Juca Viapri, content creator, Kiro Race Co

Photo by: Joe Portlock / Motorsport Images

“But the video views that we're now starting to see jumped to 50 million on day one. So already that, for us, is an immediate indicator of success. And we aren’t done with our creators, they haven't finished doing all their content pieces.”

The creators themselves were also impressed with the vision of the Formula E executives to run something like Evo Sessions.

“They're seeing this as the future, a plan, it is amazing and I think every sport should do that,” Juca told Motorsport.com.

“You're putting regular people, because I consider myself a 'regular people' in terms of everything, but when you have superheroes that do this for a living, they do have superhuman reflexes, superhuman brain response and everything.

“So when you bring normal people to test their machines, you are able to compare what everybody would do on these spaceships against what the professionals can do, and it's impressive.

“I didn't think 'I'm going to turn as fast as Ayrton Senna', nothing like that. I was just like, be careful and have fun, as my mum would say!”

Having decided against broadcasting the Evo Sessions live, instead opting to film the event to run as a documentary in the coming weeks, Formula E needs to see those sorts of posts bring in new fans in the long run.

Whether or not it succeeds, the Formula E hierarchy deserves credit for at least attempting to take a different path and, fittingly given this most recent experiment, get creative.