JIM WRIGHT is the head of commercial of Formula E team Venturi Grand Prix. Wright is a motorsports veteran. Before joining the Monaco-based team, he worked for a number of F1 teams including Williams, Toro Rosso and Virgin Racing. He talked to SBD Global about the inaugural Formula E season, challenges the series faces and the cost of running a team.
On why Venturi joined Formula E...
Jim Wright: Venturi has been in the electric vehicle business for 14 years and the entire company philosophy is centered around the development of electric powertrain components and energy sources, so it was completely natural that Venturi should be attracted to this new FIA racing series.
On electric racing being the future of motorsports...
Wright: Anyone who follows the automobile manufacturing business can see that this sector is going through a sea of change and the development of hybrid and electric vehicles has greatly accelerated in the past few years with investment levels by OEMs in hybrid and EV technology at unprecedented levels. And if you subscribe to the generally held view that motorsport accelerates the development of technologies, which can be successfully applied to road car vehicles, it naturally follows that there is an urgent requirement for a high level global racing series for electric powertrain racing cars. The FIA and Alejandro Agag had the vision for Formula E and within a very short space of time have put together a very compelling, high technology, high profile racing series. Venturi’s view is that there is absolutely a requirement for Formula E and that this series represents an important part of the FIA’s total racing perspective going forwards.
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| Jim Wright |
On challenges Formula E will face...
Wright: Formula E is primarily interested in creating a new breed of racing fan, a breed who perhaps has not previously been exposed to motorsport. This means that the promotion of the racing series and each ePrix event must be very well promoted and targeted -- highlighting the unique racing and evening entertainment aspects. Formula E will be the first motorsport series to truly embrace the digital age and FEH has already unveiled a number of innovative features with which the public can interact with the teams and drivers -- the Fan Boost scheme is a good example of this. Anything that is new and unproven will provide plenty of challenges but Formula E is working hard on the promotion of the series and the teams have great trust in their ability to build interest in the series. Technically, there are a great number of challenges to be overcome and much of this is truly ground-breaking.
On the possibility of big name car manufacturers joining the series...
Wright: Yes, absolutely, already the Mahindra and Renault brands have made commitments and I think that we will see a number of interesting announcements within the next 12 months.
On the cost of running a Formula E team...
Wright:
It is not yet possible to determine with complete accuracy the exact costs of an FE budget and as with any start-up operation, there are a number of one-off capital costs which will need to be amortized over a number of seasons. An FE budget will be made up of a number of different elements, costs which are covered within the FIA/FE cost cap, other costs which are paid directly to the promoter for items such as logistics services, to suppliers of the FIA such as telemetry services and then there are variable costs such as driver salaries. In addition, as Venturi intends to be a manufacturer of the e-motor element from Season 2, we will have a large number of R&D costs during Season 1 in preparation for Season 2 and beyond. It is the team’s aim to finance these costs totally through sponsorship
On the impact Formula E will have on Venturi's road car business...
Wright: We hope and sincerely believe that our participation in FE will have a strong and positive impact on our core business and we believe that this program will act as an international flagship for the Venturi brand.
