What actually happened at Formula E's celebrity race extravaganza

Perhaps those that were, at best, agnostic about Formula E filling in its two-month calendar void with an event based on influencers driving actual race cars have become born again believers.

Was it a success? Against considerable odds, the consensus from the paddock last week was a resounding yes.

The event worked on several levels, notably that the celebrities involved were committed, engaged and - several of them at least - surprisingly quick. The other key takeaway was the mostly seamless operational execution.

Considering the relatively late confirmation of the project that was a big win, as was the level of visibility on social media, which considering the nature of the guests involved was a given. But add in some MrBeast fairy dust and stories such as Brooklyn Peltz Beckham's major improvement over the days and Emelia Hartford probably being quick enough to genuinely take part in the all-female test later this year, and the follow-on coverage will be fun and appealing.

What happened on track

Unsurprisingly, former professional driver Scott Mansell, aka Driver61, comfortably topped the times on both days in Zane Maloney's Lola Yamaha Abt.

An ex-Indy Lights, Superleague Formula and BOSS F1 driver, Mansell is understood by The Race to have been just over a tenth off one of Maloney's benchmarks. He was 2.5 seconds quicker than the second-placed celebrity - exican content creator JUCA in Dan Ticktum's Cupra Kiro.

One question that deserved asking was how close did Mansell feel he could get to a Maloney time given a proper day of testing?

"The thing is, with cars like this, it's all about the details," said Mansell.

"To get within 1% is like a second and a half. It's difficult, of course, but the next bit, the last 1%, is really, really challenging. I think I could get within 1% after a test day but it's the last bit that's really difficult."

By far the biggest progression over the two days came from Peltz Beckham, son of former England football captain David Beckham. Paired with Mitch Evans at Jaguar, he took almost seven seconds off his first day time and ended up third overall.

Others to impress were actress Emelia Hartford for Maserati MSG. She was fourth fastest and looked genuinely committed across her laps. She was comfortably ahead of former professional footballer Sergio Aguero, most famous for his last-gasp 2012 Premier League-winning goal for Manchester City, who dropped off on the second day mainly due to braking issues that also triggered a spin.

The only slight shame was Harry Potter star Tom Felton, who appeared to be completely spent after the first day in which his time was a chasm-like 21s off Mansell's best. Later that day Felton was checked over by the medics and was considered not to be fit for another go a day later.

But outright laptimes were not what the Evo Sessions were all about. Learning, improvement and the experience were the important traits here and they will come across nicely in a longer form documentary later this year.

There were several spins along the way but the forecast of carnage and mounting crash damage bills didn't happen. There will have been some sighs of relief but the main feeling coming away from the paddock was that this will happen again: bigger and better, but probably not part-way through a season, at least with the race cars.

What happened off track

There were plenty of interviews and chit-chats held in the pop-up hospitality but the majority of the filmed action was a mix of Formula E capture and the media teams that the protagonists brought.

The Race was on the ground amid a smattering of media but the point of the Evo Sessions was self-generation of content for now and later. The chronicles of the event will be interesting because of the 'journey narrative' that the 11 drivers went on.

MrBeast's input was deliberately not fanfared because his content will come more in the coming weeks. But his shunt exceeded 20 million views on Instagram alone.

It was all over social media, naturally - with Andretti’s Jim Wright commenting to The Race: "My yardstick is if we're averaging sort of 40-42 million people per race in total, if we achieve anything more than that at a less at a reduced cost, then that's clearly a win.

"I would imagine that we would comfortably go past 42 million in terms of video views, and social media views, etc. But, and this is a real but, the aim of this is to attract new audiences and to get Formula E out through new channels so people become aware of us.

“We need to see evidence that that is translating into people coming to the race at Homestead [Formula E's Miami race in April] because I think most people dread the thought of that event being lucky to get a 10,000-15,000 crowd there.

"So, if suddenly that's really buzzing with 30,000 people then it's worked."

The inclusion of MrBeast in the event, although not directly in the Evo Sessions itself, was a colossal cherry atop the cake. As Wright stated, it's now all about the conversion rates and whether tickling non-fans with Formula E translates into curiosity and then fandom.

How the teams reacted

Formula E wasn't slapping itself on the back publicly for the success of the Evo Sessions but it deserved a bit of that privately and actually some of the team principals did that for the championship.

"I've got to applaud Formula E for doing what it has done, which is to some degree trying new concepts to make Formula E an amazing sport with true top-class teams, manufacturers and drivers but also continuing to appeal to new audiences," Jaguar's James Barclay told The Race.

"I think events like this simply embrace how a younger and new generation consume their media and tap into that and be alongside traditional media.

"We're looking forward to seeing what the outcome of this is but if you look at the reach of some of these creators that have been here over the last couple of days there's massive potential to bring our championship to new audiences and hopefully build a new generation of motorsport fans."

These sentiments were largely echoed by other teams throughout the week and with good reason. They were seeing increased eyeballs on their teams and their affiliate partners, whereas last year in the similarly large gap from Diriyah in January to Sao Paulo they had to make do with rehashed highlights of races from yesteryear.

Formula E has gone from a hibernation, something which it just can't afford in-season at a time when there is little other racing on, to a spring blooming where a mass of content is collated with vastly more popular figures (in social media terms) than any of its drivers or teams.

But could Formula E evolve the Evo Sessions concept to have a live element to it as well? There was effectively live social media content, but are there streaming opportunities when it next comes around?

"There's an opportunity to say what would a live stream version be?" Formula E's chief marketing officer Ellie Norman told The Race.

"Whether Twitch is an appropriate channel or we're doing live streams through Tiktok, I certainly believe YouTube perhaps, that there's something within the digital space where this would work as a live stream format in terms of a live broadcast.

"I don't know whether that becomes, in some respects, too traditional though. But I'm also very much looking forward to seeing [the documentary content] because we have a long-form film crew here, so how can we again make sure that that is accessible and shared on a global basis?"

The future of the Evo Sessions

Norman and Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds are adamant that a version of the Evo Sessions could become a regular fixture but practically it's hard to see how this could happen.

From September this year manufacturers are developing their Gen4 machines in conjunction with the second (and last) season of racing the Gen3 Evo cars and as such will be stretched to the limit from an operational and technical standpoint.

What could be a goer is using the Gen3 Evo cars when they are obsolete in late 2026 and having some form of close-season event.

McLaren team principal Ian James told The Race he believes that the race calendar will ultimately be a large arbiter in what any future events may look like.

"I wouldn't discount putting it in between races but having said that, in an ideal world, we would have a cadence of races that means that we wouldn't normally have this opportunity," he said.

"But I think that now it's been done, and we're confident that it can be done and be successful, there's nothing to stop it happening outside of a season.

"Often we talk about how we keep the fans talking [about Formula E]. So maybe this is an opportunity to actually keep that momentum going.

"I think it's something that the vast majority agree upon that whole-heartedly we support and care for events such as this."