Formula E Fortunes Ramp Up With New Media and Sponsor Deals

Formula E is taking its current form to Miami for its only U.S. stop in 2025, but the electric championship racing circuit is charging up for the more high-horsepower sprint ahead.

A decade after it was first introduced and almost five years since world governing body Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) declared it a World Championship—the same status held by Formula 1—Formula E returns to Miami for only the second time with a few new friends along for the ride. Last summer, Liberty Global—which spun off from Formula 1 owner Liberty Media in 2005—purchased a 65% stake in Formula E from Warner Bros. Discovery.

To meet its growing ambitions, Formula E put Ellie Norman behind the wheel of its marketing in September as its new CMO. Norman served as Formula 1’s CMO for five years immediately after Liberty Media completed its $301 million purchase of the circuit in 2017. She later became chief communications officer for the Premier League’s Manchester United.

“What’s really struck me about the championship is just how much opportunity there is,” Norman said. “What’s been really incredible through the initial 10 years of the championship is this kind of clarity of focus around Formula E as the test bed to drive forward EV mobility… [to]be able to use it as a technology test bed to go from race track to road.”

Formula 1 is now valued at more than $18.2 billion, with revenue of more than $3.65 billion in 2024. While Formula E finished shy of that mark at $284.11 million in revenue last year, Norman and her team are finding ways to close ground on Formula 1’s 65-year head start. 

In its earliest days, Formula E drew scrutiny for taking financial losses each year. While Formula E’s last financial filing, issued in July for the 2023 season, shows a $54.8 million loss, that’s down 36% from the nearly $84 million hit the championship took a year earlier 

Media rights deals are only helping Formula E turn the corner. In the U.S., Formula E initially struck a broadcast deal with CBS in 2020 to air races on CBSSportsNetwork, CBSSports.com, and PlutoTV. Last year, it entered an extension of that deal to extend races to Paramount+ and introduce Roku as a streaming partner for events, highlights, interviews, its behind-the-scenes show Formula E Unplugged, and its women-in-racing initiative Girls on Track.

Formula E credits expanded media presence and marketing for 23% growth in fans worldwide in 2024—from 304 million to 386 million. Meanwhile, Formula E saw a 35% growth in its global TV audience last year to 491 million. That exceeded the average annual viewership growth of roughly 20% that Norman said Formula E saw during each of its first nine years.

This season, Formula E claims a total of 10.5 million viewers watched the Formula E race in Mexico City across all its platforms—which would give it total viewership over multiple U.S. broadcasts of Formula 1. As Formula E prepares for its sole U.S. race of the season on April 12 in Miami, and its first race in the city since 2015, it sees a distinct finish line on the horizon.

“You’ve got Formula 1, who’s now 75 years old this season, and NASCAR and IndyCar have a heritage [nearly] 100 years old, so we are just before our teenage years,” Norman said. “When you consider the age of our sport, media plays a key role in thinking about what the access points are to audiences…and building the social and digital presence through streamers is important to continue to take Formula E to as many people as possible.”

Friends in the pits

In 2024, Formula E’s social media following grew 20% from the year before, while views of video content on its social media channels, website, and app increased 147%.

To maintain that acceleration, Formula E put together its EVO Sessions in Miami and paired 11 social media personalities with each of its 11 race teams for driver training for a few laps. Entrepreneur Brooklyn Peltz Beckham caught a ride with Jaguar; retired Argentine, Athletico Madrid, and Manchester City footballer Sergio Aguero drove for Porsche, and actor Tom Felton—known to an entire generation as Harry Potter irritant Draco Malfoy—took a run with Envision Racing.

“We have so much agility and opportunity, and the world is changing at such a rapid pace, but often the partnership models of old…It’s harder to undo in legacy businesses when perhaps things have been carved out in a certain way for [multiple] cycles,” Norman said. “We have the benefit of being so young that we can create, be agile in creating opportunities, and move at a pace that other sports are prohibited from doing.”

Adding new media and influencer partners has led to a new series of sponsors for Formula E as well. While its primary sponsorships have revolved around electric vehicles and their logistics—with sponsors including ABB, Hankook, Fortescue Zero, and Antofagasta Minerals providing the batteries, copper, infrastructure, and tires that drive the championship’s cars—newer sponsorships find slightly different lanes.

Avoiding traffic

Taittinger signed on as the official champagne sponsor of Formula E’s podium celebrations last year, giving the championship some of the luxury finishes of its racing contemporaries. However, the multiyear partnership Formula E struck with Google Cloud in 2024 was turbocharged earlier this year when Formula E announced it was expanding the terms to include generative AI products for drivers and fans alike.

Last month, Formula E launched Driver Agent AI tools for its racers, giving its driving simulators instant analysis of data including speed, brake percentage, G-force, downforce, and steering—which can be used to coach drivers on future runs. It also compares simulated performance to drivers’ performance on the track, offering tips for improving lap times, acceleration, and braking. 

As Formula E looks to grow its following to more than 500 million fans worldwide, it’s going to increasingly look to its partners to not only guide fans through electric vehicles, but create deeper insights and better race predictions for its broadcast graphics and fill its social media with race data.

“It’s very much thinking about how—in my role, in my group—do we build the fame of Formula E?” Norman said. “How do we make sure that we are easy to find and hard to leave?”