Actor and director Idris Elba is among several new strategic investors in the Cupra Kiro Formula E team.
The Golden Globe award-winning actor who has starred in films including Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom and award-winning TV series Luther, previously visited the 2018 Paris E-Prix and drove the demo Gen2 Formula E car.
Elba was announced as an investor along with major league sports team owners Tony Ressler (Atlanta Hawks), Larry Berg and Shaun Neff (Los Angeles Football Club); media deal-makers Navid Mahmoodzagedan, Steve Bornstein (Genius Sports) and Rick Hess (Evolution Media); and strategic advisors Jeffrey Assaf, Caleb Kramer and Michael Woronoff.
The Cupra Kiro team described the new investment as "underscoring the shared belief in Formula E's immense potential and growing commercial appeal, following the acquisition of Kiro Race Co by The Forest Road Company, a Los Angeles-based investment firm, in October 2024".
Elba said that his involvement was down to Formula E being "at the perfect intersection by blending sport and global entertainment with sustainability".
He added: "The team's vision for the future, desire to innovate, and commitment to excellence resonate with me on a deep, personal level, and I'm looking forward to playing my part in its journey to the front of the grid."
Jeremy Tarica, managing director of The Forest Road Company added: "Since we started our Formula E journey, Kiro Race Co has achieved several key milestones, from securing a multi-year, co-title partnership with Cupra, to a top 10 finish on our competitive debut.
“Today's announcement marks the next step in our journey, underscoring our belief in Formula E's growth potential and our commitment to pushing boundaries.
"With our exceptional investor group bringing business acumen, cultural renown, and entrepreneurial drive, we are poised to accelerate Kiro's success and establish ourselves as a leading force in motorsport and beyond."
The remarkable Kiro turnaround explained
Eight months ago, the previous incarnation of the Cupra Kiro team wasn't quite facing the abyss but its future was almost as uncertain as its poor 2024 form on the track.
ERT, as it was then known, was already on the way to collecting the wooden spoon at the bottom of the championship table, collating just 23 points from 16 races. Drivers Dan Ticktum and Sergio Sette Camara were hamstrung by a mediocre technical package and were often forced to go creative with extreme energy-saving in races just to try to scrape a point or two if there was a late safety car. It rarely worked out.
Off the track as the team ambled on there was pressure of a different kind as the debts racked up and meetings with potential manufacturer saviours amounted to nothing.
But at Portland in late June last year a delegation of Forest Road executives attended as interested guests and got talking to ERT's chiefs including team principal Alex Hui, deputy team principal Russell O'Hagan and commercial racing fixer Jon Wilde.
That led to a deal in which Forest Road became the majority owner in early September, while in the background a plan to run Gen3 spec Porsche powertrains crystallised into reality, against some significant odds.
In November a long negotiation for Cupra to switch its backing from Abt to Kiro also came to fruition and from nowhere the team had collated some significantly positive and long-term constituent parts.
Celebrity investors or directors are not uncommon in motorsport. Showbiz giants Gene Hackman, Paul Newman, David Letterman and James Garner were all involved in motorsport beyond a hobby status.
More recently NFL legend Travis Kelce, Premier League aces Trent Alexander Arnold and Juan Mata, as well as former Heavyweight Boxing world champion Anthony Joshua were just some of the names that headed a consortium of investors in the Alpine Formula 1 operation.
But what will Elba get from his new role in the Kiro Formula E team?
This will be a pure investment for him, one in which he, like the other Forest Road investors see potential for huge growth. Accelerating the ambitions of the team is a key motivational tool as well for Cupra Kiro.
It was not without design that Elba made a clandestine factory visit to Silverstone the week after the Mexico City E-Prix to surprise staff and host an impromptu rallying call. The team is clearly on the up and while its 2025 points total is meagre after two races, both Ticktum and new team-mate David Beckmann, as well as all the other staff, can now see some good times ahead.
A repeated catchphrase from Elba's brilliant character, DCI John Luther, in the eponymous TV series Luther is "It's not right though, is it?”
At present the Cupra Kiro team is proving that this particular bit of the script very much isn't accurate or needed right now.
