Method E founder on progress, future, and expertise of single-seat racing sequence

Single-seater racing is having a second in the USA.

Actually, the expansion of Method 1 stateside is a part of that story. Because of the recognition of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, the growth of the schedule to a few races in the USA, and an exciting Constructors’ title battle in 2024, F1 stays on an upward progress trajectory in America. ESPN has reported huge rankings for the primary two races of the 2025 season, each of which began after midnight on the East Coast, and people numbers are anticipated to extend because the season wears on and the schedule is extra pleasant to viewers in the USA.

Then there’s IndyCar, which is having a second of its personal. With the transfer to FOX Sports activities for the 2025 season the printed large is placing an enormous operation behind the all-American sequence, together with that includes one of many authentic voices of Drive to Survive, long-time racing analyst Will Buxton, within the sales space.

However these two should not the one video games on the town.

Method E, the all-electric single-seater sequence, is nicely into its eleventh season and heading again to the USA this upcoming weekend, with a cease in Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Forward of that race weekend, SB Nation sat down with Alberto Longo, the Co-Founder and Chief Championship Officer of the sequence, to be taught why Method E is the most effective racing you aren’t watching.

But.

The Method E origin story

LAT Photos/Mark Sutton/Method E

Motorsport is crammed with rumors, hypothesis, and tall tales.

However one story handed down by the years is just not solely true however part of Method E canon.

The game was conceived, on the outset, at a dinner in Paris in March of 2011.

“That’s completely true. Completely true,” mentioned Longo throughout our video name final week once I requested him about that Parisian dinner.

“That was a dinner between my enterprise associate Alejandro Agag, after which the previous president of the FIA Jean Todt, after which Antonio Tajani as nicely. [Tajani] was working within the European Parliament they usually have been all speaking about tips on how to manage, a totally electrical world championship, of single-seaters, of racing automobiles.”

Nevertheless, an concept is one factor, however executing on the thought is one other. That began with the group truly profitable the bid to prepare the primary single-seater, all-electric racing sequence.

“They have been simply elaborating an concept that two years after, we managed to crystallize and placed on paper, after which win a young as a result of we truly needed to win a young with the FIA,” added Longo.

“That tender was put in place for the FIA and there was 4 or 5 completely different bidders to it, and we managed to win the tender as a result of we had most likely the most effective concept, the most effective staff, to execute it.”

The imaginative and prescient behind Method E had many layers, in keeping with Longo.

“First, technology-wise, we have been speaking about expertise that was present. There was beginning to be slightly little bit of demand on electrical autos,” began Longo.

“Everyone knows that the switch of expertise from observe to street is required to be able to develop the expertise, and undoubtedly that was one thing that actually bought our consideration immediately.”

Nevertheless, there was one other factor to the Method E origin.

Business curiosity in sustainability.

“However there was additionally a type of a really specific factor which is most of the sponsors that we have been speaking to [were trying] to become involved into Method 1, and Method 2, and Method 3,” continued Longo. “They have been telling us that their CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility] departments, they wouldn’t sponsor something that, principally, pollutes that a lot. And due to this fact we noticed additionally a industrial alternative to present a platform to all of the CSR departments of massive firms, to get pleasure from a motorsport platform.”

In Longo’s thoughts, Method E has adhered to these core ideas of sustainability, technological development, and evolution, over the previous decade-plus.

“Effectively, we maintain completely loyal to it,” started Longo once I requested if Method E has lived as much as its founding imaginative and prescient.

“Positively. We’re the most effective [motorsport] firm on the planet, by way of sustainability.”

Longo pointed to the evolution of the automobiles in Method E — the sequence began with the Gen1 automobiles and is now onto the Gen3 Evo, an upgraded model of the Gen 3, with Gen4 set to reach for the 2025-2026 season — as proof of the sequence’ development and evolution.

An evolution in racing that has spurred developments off the observe.

“For instance, in these first 4 seasons of Method E, we had to make use of two automobiles to complete the race. Clearly, after these 4 seasons, we managed to double the capability of the batteries on the automobiles, and that meant that we truly had to make use of just one automobile to do the identical distance at a better pace,” started Longo.

“Then the Gen 3, which is the technology of automobiles that we’re in in the intervening time, it’s selling quick charging, and in the previous couple of races, we now have achieved what we name the ‘pit enhance,’ which suggests principally charging ten p.c of the automobile in solely 30 seconds which is an unheard expertise to date.

“We will see already some Chinese language producers already having this expertise [on their road cars] and hopefully we are going to see much more European producers adopting this expertise very quickly.”

Longo admitted to a way of pleasure at seeing expertise make its approach from the Method E observe, to the properties of residents everywhere in the globe.

“A automobile just like the Nissan LEAF, for instance, [is] 380% extra environment friendly than what they have been earlier than Method E was on the market,” described Longo.

“So undoubtedly the event that has been achieved for the Method E observe at Nissan has been used for the Nissan LEAF to be able to grow to be that environment friendly.

“We will go on and on, on completely different examples, in Jaguar, and Porsche, etcetera etcetera, they usually have used that expertise, that the 2025 take a look at floor that’s Method E, of their street automobiles and the folks of their properties right this moment they’re utilizing that expertise, and that makes us, as you possibly can think about, very, very proud.”

Alberto Longo on the expansion of Method E

LAT Photos for Method E

One thing else that Longo is happy with is the expansion of Method E through the years.

After final season, the sequence introduced report audiences all through Season 10. In line with Method E, tv viewership elevated 35% to 491 million viewers worldwide, with the Monaco race delivering Method E’s highest-ever race viewers at 40 million.

Method E additionally reported a rise in its world fanbase to a mean of 374 million followers for the season, a rise of 23% from the 2023 marketing campaign.

When requested about that progress Longo — who pressured all through our video name his need to remain “humble” even with the success of the sequence on and off the observe — highlighted simply how a lot the sequence has grown through the years.

“So once more, we have to maintain being humble. We have to carry on working. However, within the final century, [Formule E] was most likely the second sport with a much bigger degree of progress in historical past, solely surpassed by cricket in India,” started Longo. “Clearly they’ve fairly a fan base of just about two billion folks.

“However undoubtedly we’re tremendous pleased with what have achieved to this point, however there’s much more to do.

“We wish to grow to be the reference in motorsport, within the short-to-medium time period, and undoubtedly for that, we have to carry on working. Carry on attracting folks, new folks to our sport, which is necessary.

“There are 800 million followers of motorsport on the planet, however there are eight billion folks.

“So there is a chance for 7.2 billion people who have by no means watched a race of motorsport normally, to draw them and [get them to] love our sport the way in which we do.”

To advertise and maintain that progress, Method E will proceed to increase its schedule. Earlier than my dialogue with Longo, I solicited potential questions for the Method E Co-Founder and CCO on social media. One reader query concerned the potential growth of the schedule, and Longo responded to that query by pointing to the sequence’ progress plan.

“Positively the plan is to maintain on rising,” started Longo. “We’re doing 16 races this yr. Hopefully subsequent yr we are going to find yourself going to 18 or 19 races, and that can carry on rising till we most likely do 22 to 24 races, and we are going to get there by 2030.

“So there’s a very strategic pondering behind these numbers, clearly.

“And the explanation why we simply do one race per nation is as a result of we wish to have a geographical unfold, and we’re a world championship,” continued Longo.

“We wish to race in each single continent on this world. However it’s also true that the [United States] and China are the 2 key and largest markets that we now have, so undoubtedly we’re trying to completely different alternatives to do not less than two races in every certainly one of these markets, and that’s hopefully coming very quickly, as quickly as subsequent yr that we’re planning to have already two races within the US.”

One other fan query centered on Longo’s favourite observe within the historical past of the game.

In response, Longo sounded extra like a proud guardian than a CCO. Or maybe, perhaps precisely like a CCO, given a part of his duties at Method E.

“I actually can’t select one,” laughed Longo.

“It’s not that I don’t wish to reply, as a result of, nicely, to start with, as a Co-Founder, certainly one of my duties inside this firm is to kind the calendar.

“So it’s me who’s touring all over the world to attempt to get the calendar for subsequent season.

“So, I can’t select one, as a result of each single metropolis that we go to is a really particular metropolis.”

Nevertheless, Longo did word that there are some tracks in Method E’s historical past that he would like to revisit. The present technology of Method E automobiles has made tracks beforehand on the calendar unavailable, given their pace and energy.

Longo would like to revisit a few of these spots sooner or later.

“I feel Paris is a really particular place, and we have been pressured to depart Paris as a result of the automobiles have been getting so speedy, so fast, so quick, in such a short while, that, sadly, that observe wasn’t succesful for us to do races there.

“Moscow as nicely.

“We raced within the Pink Sq. [in Moscow]. We raced in Paris, it was actually near the Eiffel Tower.

“These landmarks of these international locations, of these cities is, one thing that we’d love to return to. However sadly, we can’t race there anymore as a result of the automobiles have gotten tremendous, tremendous quick.”

One other side of rising the game is discovering new expertise to take part on the observe, and behind the pit wall. Method E just lately introduced a second all-female drivers’ take a look at, with extra laps and extra time for the drivers.

However in keeping with Longo that’s simply a part of the story that Method E hopes to inform.

“I feel we now have been doing that from nearly inception,” answered Longo when requested about growing feminine participation in Method E. “We have now along with the FIA what we name the ‘FIA Women on Observe’ initiative, which as much as 120 girls will take part in [at] Miami. They may take part in workshops, in gaming talks, in a pit lane stroll. We’ll educate them on driving, on managing the media, so it’s a really spectacular exercise that we now have achieved for greater than I feel 5,000 younger girls on the planet as much as right this moment.

“And we’re very happy with that.

“We imagine that there’s a group of females which can be underrepresented in motorsport.

“It’s world and what we’re making an attempt to do is give alternatives to underrepresented teams to be within the sport that we love.

“Having mentioned so, what we wish is the quickest folks to be drivers, essentially the most eloquent folks to be on the media, the most effective minds to be engineers.

“So undoubtedly, we’re making an attempt to present that platform to create these alternatives for people who find themselves proficient sufficient, however they haven’t discovered that chance simply but.”

What units Method E aside?

Photograph by Andrew Ferraro/LAT Photos

As famous above, single-seater racing is having fun with a second in the USA.

Nevertheless, in keeping with Longo, there are features of Method E that actually set the sequence aside from its counterparts. Features that followers outdated and new, younger and outdated, can actually get pleasure from.

“Effectively we’re, I might say, essentially the most entertaining type of motorsport right this moment,” started Longo.

That begins with the product on the observe.

“We carry motion to the observe. There’s a variety of overtaking,” described the Method E CCO.

Past the racing motion, there’s the general function behind Method E, in addition to the expertise for followers who attend a race in particular person.

“We care about sustainability,” continued Longo. “We’re a really inclusive and accessible sport which, in motorsport historical past, sadly, wasn’t constructed that approach.

“So simply to present you an instance, the hopefully 20,000 folks which can be going to return to Miami, they’ll have entry to the again of our garages.

“They are going to be across the drivers, across the staff managers across the Common Managers of various corporations. We’re all very, very accessible.

“We wish to assume that we’re a giant household and that we’re right here to entertain.

“We don’t perceive sports activities with out leisure, and so [a fan] not solely deal with the exercise that’s going to occur on observe but in addition off observe,” continued Longo. “And off observe, we now have a variety of worldwide sponsors and native companions that will likely be activating, to make that day a really special occasion for everyone having fun with Method E.”

There’s additionally one thing else that helps set Method E aside.

As certainly one of my favourite readers put it, a extra relaxed vibe, and a scarcity of “stuffiness” that you just would possibly see with different racing sequence.

Requested whether or not that was a part of the plan or a pure evolution of Method E, Longo made it clear that was of their DNA from “day one.”

“Alejandro and I, each the founders, we have been concerned in Method 1, in Method 2, and Method 3 up to now,” began Longo.

“So after we began enthusiastic about Method E, we determined the place have been the issues that we would have liked to vary, and issues that we didn’t like.

“And particularly that exclusivity that’s hooked up to motorsport normally, is one thing that we didn’t like in any respect.

“Individuals are already paying fairly some huge cash for the tickets to get in, and they need to have the entry. And from day one we have been racing within the metropolis facilities,” continued Longo. “We’re bringing motorsport to the balconies of the folks, to the home windows of the folks, and simply to have the chance to open your window and watch a race down there, it’s fairly an accessible factor.

“However even in case you determine to return and pay for a ticket, then you need to have full entry to the expertise. And undoubtedly with that, that was in our DNA from day one.”

The 2025 Method E season

As our video name drew to a detailed, the dialog turned to the 2025 Method E season and the upcoming Miami E-Prix.

The 2025 Method E marketing campaign started again in December of 2024, with the São Paulo E-Prix. Since then the grid has traveled from Brazil, to Mexico Metropolis, to Saudi Arabia, and heads to Miami later this week.

Over 4 races the sequence has seen three completely different winners.

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans gained the São Paulo E-Prix, conducting a never-before-seen feat in Method E. Regardless of beginning twenty second — and final — on the grid Evans picked up 21 locations, making 11 aggressive overtakes alongside the way in which for the win.

Nissan’s Oliver Rowland picked up wins in each Mexico Metropolis and within the second race in Jeddah, whereas Maximilian Günther from Penske took the primary race in Saudi Arabia.

When the circuit arrives in Miami solely 5 factors will separate the highest 4 groups within the Groups’ Championship. Nissan sits atop the desk with 68 factors adopted by NEOM McLaren with 67, TAG Heuer Porsche with 64, and DS Penske with 63.

Longo described the beginning of the 2024-2025 Method E season as “wonderful.”

“Effectively, it’s been to date wonderful,” began Longo when requested in regards to the present season.

“Clearly we now have achieved to this point races in Mexico, in São Paulo, and in Saudi Arabia, 4 races in whole.

“The expansion of the championship, it’s been rising at a greater path than, final yr, which is kind of spectacular.

“We had [in the Mexico City E-Prix] the second-best viewers of any motorsport within the US on the US channel which is CBS,” continued Longo. “That’s spectacular, , it’s a quantity that we actually like and actually we’re so enthusiastic about as a result of now we’re coming to Miami and hopefully we are going to break that report.

“So by way of media, the Championship is doing very nicely. By way of attraction, for brand spanking new cities to affix the calendar within the following season, goes very nicely as nicely.

“So there’s a lot to do, however tremendous happy with what we now have achieved in such a short while.”

The return to Miami is a return to the roots of Method E. Longo famous that the USA has been a “core” marketplace for the sequence since its inception, however Miami is a giant a part of that founding story.

“[The United States] has been a core marketplace for us since day one. [The fifth] race of the historical past of Method E was achieved exactly in Miami, on Biscayne Boulevard and surrounding the American Airways Area, which was wonderful.”

Longo famous that Method E has a little bit of “American DNA,” from its schedule to a few of the producers and drivers within the historical past of the sequence.

“Now we’re again into Miami and undoubtedly trying into two races within the US,” described Longo. “That tells you that our dedication with the nation, it’s unending.

“The entire Method E ecosystem, together with companions, together with groups, drivers, all people desires to an excellent footprint within the US and undoubtedly, we’re gonna carry on going there.

“We have now two American groups on our grid, which is Andretti Penske. Thoroughly-known manufacturers with a variety of heritage and historical past, and we had some American drivers.

“Hopefully sooner or later we may have much more.”

“We’re type of the one motorsport property which have blended European motorsport with US motorsport, and we wish to say and to really feel like we now have slightly little bit of a of an American DNA, , in our championship.”

Turning his consideration to the Miami E-Prix, Longo has excessive expectations for the race. From the occasion itself to the followers that he believes will pack Homestead-Miami.

“It’s such a tremendous place, wonderful facility, and a completely pretty state and metropolis.”

That is the primary time the sequence is racing at Homestead-Miami, which Longo famous brings a “huge stage” to the game.

“[It’s the] first time that we go to Homestead and it’s an enormous stage, , during which our drivers must carry out.

“We have now, I feel it’s 35,000 grandstand seats, and that’s huge.

“We have now been doing races in Mexico and now we’re offered out for 45,000-50,000 folks each time that we go there, however the first time that we go it’s all the time a problem, to be able to be well-known within the metropolis, and be an possibility for the folks of what to do on a Saturday.

“I’ll contemplate Miami a hit simply by having 15,000 to twenty,000 folks, that these folks return to their properties and begin speaking to their associates.

“That might be a mega success.

“As a result of what we are able to assure is that there’s gonna be a tremendous race that’s gonna occur of their metropolis and that that race is gonna be seen in 192 international locations or extra, and hopefully greater than 50 million folks all over the world.

Longo then closed with a little bit of enterprise.

His elevator pitch for these on the fence about watching Method E, or making the journey to Miami.

“Probably the most thrilling type of racing that you’ll find, essentially the most accessible type of racing that you’ll find,” began Longo.

“And we now have the quickest accelerating single-seater automobile on the planet, which is 0 to 100 [kilometers per hour] in 1.82 seconds. Extra agile than what was earlier than, extra leaner than what it was earlier than. Now we now have all-wheel drive, on, on the automobile which makes mega aggressive.

“They’re gonna once more have a variety of enjoyable watching a race and coming there.

“However for us, it’s equally necessary: What are they gonna do when they aren’t watching the race on the observe?

“That is the place all of the activations that we do, the live shows, they might be very near a variety of celebrities that can come to a race, and all in all it’s a very enjoyable day trip. And I feel the tickets are beginning for $39 on Ticketmaster, so undoubtedly very accessible as as nicely.

The entire household can come collectively, a gaggle of 4 or 5 or a household, for $150 , and that’s nearly what it’s costing you right this moment to go to the cinema.

With a day stuffed with actions on and off observe.

If somebody is doubting, come strive it, and I’ll promise you that you can be again for positive.