The E1 Racebird boats are fully electric and ride on hydrofoils.
Electric racing has struggled to succeed. Many innovative series have encountered problems, with Formula E the exception rather than the rule. Combining sustainability with another niche – powerboat motorsport – could have been a recipe for disaster. But the electric E1 powerboat racing series has gone from strength to strength, attracting famous names from acting, sport, and music as team owner figureheads. What has been the secret of its success?
“We’re still here,” says Alejandro Agag, Founder of E1, as well as Formula E and Extreme E (recently mutated into Extreme H). “That’s already an achievement. It's always difficult to create a championship, especially in an area like boat racing.” That’s not to say that E1 hasn’t faced problems along the way. “Every championship has difficulty breaking through the media barrier. It’s hard to get broadcasted and very hard to get to the big audiences. That's still our challenge, but if you want to break that wall, first you need to have something that exists. The key to the championships that will survive is to have a business model that allows you to continue without revenue from the media, so when you get the revenue from media it’s on top.”
The incredibly innovative Extreme E series struggled with this problem. Its generally remote race sites meant there was almost never a physical audience, and no potential for marketing these as destinations. “The main success of E1 is the locations,” says Agag. “With some exceptions, like Monaco, they all pay, and in Extreme E we were going to very remote locations where they didn’t pay, because there was effectively no location. With Greenland or the desert in Chile, there was no business model for the venue. Here, there is a business model based on the venues. We have new venues like Angola. We have Lagos that we've done twice. We have Jeddah. In all of them, we make a profit on the event itself, which is the key.”
Agag was speaking before the E1 race in Dubrovnik’s beautiful Pile Bay. “Here, we are sponsored by the Croatian Tourism Board,” he explains. “They have an interest in attracting tourism. The main sponsor is the chain of hotels where we host the hospitality. They're interested in bringing people to the location.” However, a unique aspect of E1 is celebrity involvement. Some very famous people act as figurehead team principals and owners. These include actor Will Smith, legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady, NBA superstar LeBron James, DJ and record producer Steve Aoki, tennis champion Rafa Nadal, Latin music favorite Marc Anthony, and multi-cup-winning footballer Didier Drogba. No other sport has such direct and diverse celebrity involvement.
Electric racing has struggled to succeed. Many innovative series have encountered problems, with Formula E the exception rather than the rule. Combining sustainability with another niche – powerboat motorsport – could have been a recipe for disaster. But the electric E1 powerboat racing series has gone from strength to strength, attracting famous names from acting, sport, and music as team owner figureheads. What has been the secret of its success?
“We’re still here,” says Alejandro Agag, Founder of E1, as well as Formula E and Extreme E (recently mutated into Extreme H). “That’s already an achievement. It's always difficult to create a championship, especially in an area like boat racing.” That’s not to say that E1 hasn’t faced problems along the way. “Every championship has difficulty breaking through the media barrier. It’s hard to get broadcasted and very hard to get to the big audiences. That's still our challenge, but if you want to break that wall, first you need to have something that exists. The key to the championships that will survive is to have a business model that allows you to continue without revenue from the media, so when you get the revenue from media it’s on top.”
The incredibly innovative Extreme E series struggled with this problem. Its generally remote race sites meant there was almost never a physical audience, and no potential for marketing these as destinations. “The main success of E1 is the locations,” says Agag. “With some exceptions, like Monaco, they all pay, and in Extreme E we were going to very remote locations where they didn’t pay, because there was effectively no location. With Greenland or the desert in Chile, there was no business model for the venue. Here, there is a business model based on the venues. We have new venues like Angola. We have Lagos that we've done twice. We have Jeddah. In all of them, we make a profit on the event itself, which is the key.”
Agag was speaking before the E1 race in Dubrovnik’s beautiful Pile Bay. “Here, we are sponsored by the Croatian Tourism Board,” he explains. “They have an interest in attracting tourism. The main sponsor is the chain of hotels where we host the hospitality. They're interested in bringing people to the location.” However, a unique aspect of E1 is celebrity involvement. Some very famous people act as figurehead team principals and owners. These include actor Will Smith, legendary NFL quarterback Tom Brady, NBA superstar LeBron James, DJ and record producer Steve Aoki, tennis champion Rafa Nadal, Latin music favorite Marc Anthony, and multi-cup-winning footballer Didier Drogba. No other sport has such direct and diverse celebrity involvement.
2 months ago
