DUBROVNIK, CROATIA - JUNE 12: Rianna O'Meara-Hunt (NZL) / Timmy Hansen (SWE), Team Miami, in action during Qualifying for the E1 Series Dubrovnik GP on June 12, 2026 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. (Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images)
When Formula E launched in Beijing in 2014, it arrived with a clear mission. Electric racing was intended to demonstrate that battery-powered vehicles could be exciting, fast and commercially viable while promoting a cleaner future for transport. More than a decade later, the landscape has changed dramatically. Electric vehicles are now a mainstream product in many markets, China has become the global center of EV innovation, and conversations around climate change have entered a more fractious mode. The newest electric racing championship, E1, finds itself entering the market at a very different moment. The series, featuring all-electric hydrofoiling RaceBird boats competing in waterfront cities around the world, still promotes clean technology, but its leadership increasingly believes that sustainability is no longer enough to capture public attention. Instead, E1's future may depend on demonstrating that electric propulsion simply delivers a better experience. I talked to E1 (and Formula E) founder Alejandro Agag, Sports.com Predict Team Miami pilots Timmy Hansen and Rianna O'Meara-Hunt, and Sports.com Predict Team Miami team principal Steve Curtis. They described a championship that is rapidly evolving from an environmental showcase into one of the world's most technically fascinating forms of motorsport.
Agag has spent much of his career launching new forms of electric motorsport. Having founded Formula E before turning his attention to Extreme E and now E1, he has witnessed first-hand how attitudes towards electrification have changed. "When we launched Formula E electric was the future," says Agag. "Manufacturers were going full electric. Mercedes came in, BMW, and Audi."
Today, Agag believes the public conversation has moved on. "Sustainability has really lost a lot of its attraction, which is a pity, because the climate problem has not changed, it's worse than before," says Aga. "Activists have been incredibly bad for the cause. To destroy a piece of art or to block a highway has exactly the opposite effect. It really repels people. It produces a divorce between the public and sustainability, because those activists wrongly embody environmentalism."
DUBROVNIK, CROATIA - JUNE 13: RaceBirds sit in the Launch Zone ahead of the E1 Series Dubrovnik GP on June 13, 2026 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. (Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images)
#Miami
When Formula E launched in Beijing in 2014, it arrived with a clear mission. Electric racing was intended to demonstrate that battery-powered vehicles could be exciting, fast and commercially viable while promoting a cleaner future for transport. More than a decade later, the landscape has changed dramatically. Electric vehicles are now a mainstream product in many markets, China has become the global center of EV innovation, and conversations around climate change have entered a more fractious mode. The newest electric racing championship, E1, finds itself entering the market at a very different moment. The series, featuring all-electric hydrofoiling RaceBird boats competing in waterfront cities around the world, still promotes clean technology, but its leadership increasingly believes that sustainability is no longer enough to capture public attention. Instead, E1's future may depend on demonstrating that electric propulsion simply delivers a better experience. I talked to E1 (and Formula E) founder Alejandro Agag, Sports.com Predict Team Miami pilots Timmy Hansen and Rianna O'Meara-Hunt, and Sports.com Predict Team Miami team principal Steve Curtis. They described a championship that is rapidly evolving from an environmental showcase into one of the world's most technically fascinating forms of motorsport.
Agag has spent much of his career launching new forms of electric motorsport. Having founded Formula E before turning his attention to Extreme E and now E1, he has witnessed first-hand how attitudes towards electrification have changed. "When we launched Formula E electric was the future," says Agag. "Manufacturers were going full electric. Mercedes came in, BMW, and Audi."
Today, Agag believes the public conversation has moved on. "Sustainability has really lost a lot of its attraction, which is a pity, because the climate problem has not changed, it's worse than before," says Aga. "Activists have been incredibly bad for the cause. To destroy a piece of art or to block a highway has exactly the opposite effect. It really repels people. It produces a divorce between the public and sustainability, because those activists wrongly embody environmentalism."
DUBROVNIK, CROATIA - JUNE 13: RaceBirds sit in the Launch Zone ahead of the E1 Series Dubrovnik GP on June 13, 2026 in Dubrovnik, Croatia. (Photo by Joe Portlock/Getty Images)
#Miami
3 months ago
