Formula E founder on growth, future, and technology of single-seat racing series

Single-seater racing is having a moment in the United States.

Certainly, the growth of Formula 1 stateside is part of that story. Thanks to the popularity of the Netflix docuseries Drive to Survive, the expansion of the schedule to three races in the United States, and a thrilling Constructors’ title fight in 2024, F1 remains on an upward growth trajectory in America. ESPN has reported massive ratings for the first two races of the 2025 season, both of which started after midnight on the East Coast, and those numbers are expected to increase as the season wears on and the schedule is more friendly to viewers in the United States.

Then there is IndyCar, which is having a moment of its own. With the move to FOX Sports for the 2025 season the broadcast giant is putting a massive operation behind the all-American series, including featuring one of the original voices of Drive to Survive, long-time racing analyst Will Buxton, in the booth.

But those two are not the only games in town.

Formula E, the all-electric single-seater series, is well into its 11th season and heading back to the United States this upcoming weekend, with a stop in Miami at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Ahead of that race weekend, SB Nation sat down with Alberto Longo, the Co-Founder and Chief Championship Officer of the series, to learn why Formula E is the best racing you are not watching.

Yet.

The Formula E origin story

LAT Images/Mark Sutton/Formula E

Motorsport is filled with rumors, speculation, and tall tales.

But one story passed down through the years is not only true but a part of Formula E canon.

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

“That’s absolutely true. Absolutely true,” said Longo during our video call last week when I asked him about that Parisian dinner.

“That was a dinner between my business partner Alejandro Agag, and then the former president of the FIA Jean Todt, and then Antonio Tajani as well. [Tajani] was working in the European Parliament and they were all talking about how to organize, a fully electric world championship, of single-seaters, of racing cars.”

However, an idea is one thing, but executing on the idea is another. That started with the group actually winning the bid to organize the first single-seater, all-electric racing series.

“They were just elaborating an idea that two years after, we managed to crystallize and put on paper, and then win a tender because we actually had to win a tender with the FIA,” added Longo.

“That tender was put in place for the FIA and there was four or five different bidders to it, and we managed to win the tender because we had probably the best idea, the best team, to execute it.”

The vision behind Formula E had many layers, according to Longo.

“First, technology-wise, we were talking about technology that was existing. There was starting to be a little bit of demand on electric vehicles,” started Longo.

“We all know that the transfer of technology from track to road is needed in order to develop the technology, and definitely that was something that really got our attention straight away.”

However, there was another element to the Formula E origin.

Commercial interest in sustainability.

“But there was also a kind of a very particular thing which is many of the sponsors that we were talking to [were trying] to get involved into Formula 1, and Formula 2, and Formula 3,” continued Longo. “They were telling us that their CSR [Corporate Social Responsibility] departments, they wouldn’t sponsor anything that, basically, pollutes that much. And therefore we saw also a commercial opportunity to give a platform to all the CSR departments of big corporations, to enjoy a motorsport platform.”

In Longo’s mind, Formula E has adhered to those core principles of sustainability, technological advancement, and evolution, over the past decade-plus.

“Well, we keep totally loyal to it,” began Longo when I asked if Formula E has lived up to its founding vision.

“Definitely. We are the best [motorsport] company in the world, in terms of sustainability.”

Longo pointed to the evolution of the cars in Formula E — the series started with the Gen1 cars and is now onto the Gen3 Evo, an upgraded version of the Gen 3, with Gen4 set to arrive for the 2025-2026 season — as evidence of the series’ advancement and evolution.

An evolution in racing that has spurred advancements off the track.

“For example, in those first four seasons of Formula E, we had to use two cars to finish the race. Obviously, after those four seasons, we managed to double the capacity of the batteries on the cars, and that meant that we actually had to use only one car to do the same distance at a higher speed,” began Longo.

“Then the Gen 3, which is the generation of cars that we’re in at the moment, it’s promoting fast charging, and in the last few races, we have done what we call the ‘pit boost,’ which means basically charging ten percent of the car in only 30 seconds which is an unheard technology so far.

“We can see already some Chinese manufacturers already having this technology [on their road cars] and hopefully we will see a lot more European manufacturers adopting this technology very soon.”

Longo admitted to a sense of pride at seeing technology make its way from the Formula E track, to the homes of citizens all over the globe.

“A car like the Nissan LEAF, for example, [is] 380% more efficient than what they were before Formula E was out there,” described Longo.

“So definitely the development that has been done for the Formula E track at Nissan has been used for the Nissan LEAF in order to become that efficient.

“We can go on and on, on different examples, in Jaguar, and Porsche, etcetera etcetera, and they have used that technology, that the 2025 test ground that is Formula E, in their road cars and the people in their homes today they’re using that technology, and that makes us, as you can imagine, very, very proud.”

Alberto Longo on the growth of Formula E

LAT Images for Formula E

Something else that Longo is proud of is the growth of Formula E over the years.

After last season, the series announced record audiences throughout Season 10. According to Formula E, television viewership increased 35% to 491 million viewers worldwide, with the Monaco race delivering Formula E’s highest-ever race audience at 40 million.

Formula E also reported an increase in its global fanbase to an average of 374 million fans for the season, an increase of 23% from the 2023 campaign.

When asked about that growth Longo — who stressed throughout our video call his desire to stay “humble” even with the success of the series on and off the track — highlighted just how much the series has grown over the years.

“So again, we need to keep being humble. We need to keep on working. But, in the last century, [Formule E] was probably the second sport with a bigger level of growth in history, only surpassed by cricket in India,” began Longo. “Obviously they have quite a fan base of almost two billion people.

“But definitely we are super happy with what have done up to now, but there is a lot more to do.

“We want to become the reference in motorsport, in the short-to-medium term, and definitely for that, we need to keep on working. Keep on attracting people, new people to our sport, which is important.

“There are 800 million fans of motorsport in the world, but there are eight billion people.

“So there is an opportunity for 7.2 billion people that have never watched a race of motorsport in general, to attract them and [get them to] love our sport the way we do.”

To promote and sustain that growth, Formula E will continue to expand its schedule. Before my discussion with Longo, I solicited potential questions for the Formula E Co-Founder and CCO on social media. One reader question involved the potential expansion of the schedule, and Longo responded to that question by pointing to the series’ growth plan.

“Definitely the plan is to keep on growing,” began Longo. “We are doing 16 races this year. Hopefully next year we will end up going to 18 or 19 races, and that will keep on growing until we probably do 22 to 24 races, and we will get there by 2030.

“So there is a very strategic thinking behind these numbers, obviously.

“And the reason why we just do one race per country is because we want to have a geographical spread, and we are a global championship,” continued Longo.

“We would like to race in every single continent in this world. But it is also true that the [United States] and China are the two key and biggest markets that we have, so definitely we’re looking to different opportunities to do at least two races in each one of these markets, and that is hopefully coming very soon, as soon as next year that we’re planning to have already two races in the US.”

Another fan question centered on Longo’s favorite track in the history of the sport.

In response, Longo sounded more like a proud parent than a CCO. Or perhaps, maybe exactly like a CCO, given part of his responsibilities at Formula E.

“I really cannot choose one,” laughed Longo.

“It’s not that I don’t want to respond, because, well, first of all, as a Co-Founder, one of my duties within this company is to form the calendar.

“So it’s me who is traveling around the world to try to get the calendar for next season.

“So, I cannot choose one, because every single city that we go to is a very special city.”

However, Longo did note that there are some tracks in Formula E’s history that he would love to revisit. The current generation of Formula E cars has made tracks previously on the calendar unavailable, given their speed and power.

Longo would love to revisit some of those spots in the future.

“I think Paris is a very special place, and we were forced to leave Paris because the cars were getting so rapid, so quick, so fast, in such a short time, that, unfortunately, that track wasn’t capable for us to do races there.

“Moscow as well.

“We raced in the Red Square [in Moscow]. We raced in Paris, it was really close to the Eiffel Tower.

“Those landmarks of those countries, of those cities is, something that we would love to go back to. But unfortunately, we cannot race there anymore because the cars are becoming super, super fast.”

Another aspect of growing the sport is finding new talent to participate on the track, and behind the pit wall. Formula E recently announced a second all-female drivers’ test, with more laps and more time for the drivers.

But according to Longo that is just part of the story that Formula E hopes to tell.

“I think we have been doing that from almost inception,” answered Longo when asked about increasing female participation in Formula E. “We have together with the FIA what we call the ‘FIA Girls on Track’ initiative, which up to 120 women will participate in [at] Miami. They will participate in workshops, in gaming talks, in a pit lane walk. We will educate them on driving, on managing the media, so it’s a very impressive activity that we have done for more than I think 5,000 young women in the world up to today.

“And we’re very proud of that.

“We believe that there is a group of females that are underrepresented in motorsport.

“It’s global and what we’re trying to do is give opportunities to underrepresented groups to be in the sport that we love.

“Having said so, what we want is the fastest people to be drivers, the most eloquent people to be on the media, the best minds to be engineers.

“So definitely, we’re trying to give that platform to create those opportunities for people who are talented enough, but they haven’t found that opportunity just yet.”

What sets Formula E apart?

Photo by Andrew Ferraro/LAT Images

As noted above, single-seater racing is enjoying a moment in the United States.

However, according to Longo, there are aspects of Formula E that truly set the series apart from its counterparts. Aspects that fans old and new, young and old, can truly enjoy.

“Well we are, I would say, the most entertaining form of motorsport today,” began Longo.

That starts with the product on the track.

“We bring action to the track. There is a lot of overtaking,” described the Formula E CCO.

Beyond the racing action, there is the overall purpose behind Formula E, as well as the experience for fans who attend a race in person.

“We care about sustainability,” continued Longo. “We are a very inclusive and accessible sport which, in motorsport history, unfortunately, wasn’t built that way.

“So just to give you an example, the hopefully 20,000 people that are going to come to Miami, they will have access to the back of our garages.

“They will be around the drivers, around the team managers around the General Managers of different companies. We are all very, very accessible.

“We like to think that we are a big family and that we are here to entertain.

“We don’t understand sports without entertainment, and so [a fan] not only focus on the activity that is going to happen on track but also off track,” continued Longo. “And off track, we have a lot of international sponsors and local partners that will be activating, to make that day a very special day for everybody enjoying Formula E.”

There is also something else that helps set Formula E apart.

As one of my favorite readers put it, a more relaxed vibe, and a lack of “stuffiness” that you might see with other racing series.

Asked whether that was part of the plan or a natural evolution of Formula E, Longo made it clear that was in their DNA from “day one.”

“Alejandro and I, both the founders, we were involved in Formula 1, in Formula 2, and Formula 3 in the past,” started Longo.

“So when we started thinking about Formula E, we decided where were the things that we needed to change, and things that we didn’t like.

“And especially that exclusivity that is attached to motorsport in general, is something that we didn’t like at all.

“People are already paying quite a lot of money for the tickets to get in, and they should have the access. And from day one we were racing in the city centers,” continued Longo. “We’re bringing motorsport to the balconies of the people, to the windows of the people, and just to have the opportunity to open your window and watch a race down there, it’s quite an accessible thing.

“But even if you decide to come and pay for a ticket, then you have to have full access to the experience. And definitely with that, that was in our DNA from day one.”

The 2025 Formula E season

As our video call drew to a close, the conversation turned to the 2025 Formula E season and the upcoming Miami E-Prix.

The 2025 Formula E campaign began back in December of 2024, with the São Paulo E-Prix. Since then the grid has traveled from Brazil, to Mexico City, to Saudi Arabia, and heads to Miami later this week.

Over four races the series has seen three different winners.

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans won the São Paulo E-Prix, accomplishing a never-before-seen feat in Formula E. Despite starting 22nd — and last — on the grid Evans picked up 21 places, making 11 competitive overtakes along the way for the win.

Nissan’s Oliver Rowland picked up wins in both Mexico City and in the second race in Jeddah, while Maximilian Günther from Penske took the first race in Saudi Arabia.

When the circuit arrives in Miami only five points will separate the top four teams in the Teams’ Championship. Nissan sits atop the table with 68 points followed by NEOM McLaren with 67, TAG Heuer Porsche with 64, and DS Penske with 63.

Longo described the start of the 2024-2025 Formula E season as “amazing.”

“Well, it’s been so far amazing,” started Longo when asked about the current season.

“Obviously we have done up to now races in Mexico, in São Paulo, and in Saudi Arabia, four races in total.

“The growth of the championship, it’s been growing at a better path than, last year, which is quite impressive.

“We had [in the Mexico City E-Prix] the second-best audience of any motorsport in the US on the US channel which is CBS,” continued Longo. “That’s impressive, you know, it’s a number that we really like and really we are so excited about because now we’re coming to Miami and hopefully we will break that record.

“So in terms of media, the Championship is doing very well. In terms of attraction, for new cities to join the calendar in the following season, is going very well as well.

“So there is a lot to do, but super proud of what we have done in such a short time.”

The return to Miami is a return to the roots of Formula E. Longo noted that the United States has been a “core” market for the series since its inception, but Miami is a big part of that founding story.

“[The United States] has been a core market for us since day one. [The fifth] race of the history of Formula E was done precisely in Miami, on Biscayne Boulevard and surrounding the American Airlines Arena, which was amazing.”

Longo noted that Formula E has a bit of “American DNA,” from its schedule to some of the manufacturers and drivers in the history of the series.

“Now we’re back into Miami and definitely looking into two races in the US,” described Longo. “That tells you that our commitment with the country, it’s never-ending.

“The whole Formula E ecosystem, including partners, including teams, drivers, everybody wants to a good footprint in the US and definitely, we are gonna keep on going there.

“We have two American teams on our grid, which is Andretti Penske. Very well-known brands with a lot of heritage and history, and we had some American drivers.

“Hopefully in the future we will have even more.”

“We’re kind of the only motorsport property that have mixed European motorsport with US motorsport, and we like to say and to feel like we have a little bit of a of an American DNA, you know, in our championship.”

Turning his attention to the Miami E-Prix, Longo has high expectations for the race. From the event itself to the fans that he believes will pack Homestead-Miami.

“It’s such an amazing place, amazing facility, and an absolutely lovely state and city.”

This is the first time the series is racing at Homestead-Miami, which Longo noted brings a “massive stage” to the sport.

“[It’s the] first time that we go to Homestead and it’s a massive stage, you know, in which our drivers need to perform.

“We have, I think it’s 35,000 grandstand seats, and that’s massive.

“We have been doing races in Mexico and now we are sold out for 45,000-50,000 people every time that we go there, but the first time that we go it’s always a challenge, in order to be well known in the city, and be an option for the people of what to do on a Saturday.

“I will consider Miami a success just by having 15,000 to 20,000 people, that those people go back to their homes and start talking to their friends.

“That would be a mega success.

“Because what we can guarantee is that there is gonna be an amazing race that is gonna happen in their city and that that race is gonna be seen in 192 countries or more, and hopefully more than 50 million people around the world.

Longo then closed with a bit of business.

His elevator pitch for those on the fence about watching Formula E, or making the trip to Miami.

“The most exciting form of racing that you can find, the most accessible form of racing that you can find,” started Longo.

“And we have the quickest accelerating single-seater car in the world, which is 0 to 100 [kilometers per hour] in 1.82 seconds. More agile than what was before, more leaner than what it was before. Now we have all-wheel drive, on, on the car which makes mega competitive.

“They’re gonna again have a lot of fun watching a race and coming there.

“But for us, it’s equally important: What are they gonna do when they are not watching the race on the track?

“This is where all the activations that we do, the concerts, they would be very close to a lot of celebrities that will come to a race, and all in all it is a very fun day out. And I think the tickets are starting for $39 on Ticketmaster, so definitely very accessible as as well.

The whole family can come together, a group of four or five or a family, for $150 you know, and that’s almost what it is costing you today to go to the cinema.

With a day full of activities on and off track.

If someone is doubting, come try it, and I will promise you that you will be back for sure.