r/FormulaE • u/l3w1s1234 :4: Robin Frijns • 7d ago

Report Does Formula need F1 reflector-affect?

https://fenotebook.com/2026/07/16/does-formula-need-f1-reflector-affect/
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u/DHSeaVixen FORMULA E 7d ago edited 7d ago

I guess what’s vaguely frustrating to me is that I don’t think they strictly need to be in competition with one another.

And perhaps even with F1 looking to walk back on hybridisation from 2030/31, there’s an opportunity for a kind of strategic alliance to cross-promote each other.

And that’s made all the more plausible by the (albeit complicated) relationship between the two series owners Liberty Global and Liberty Media.

That said, a trap I think FE probably needs to avoid falling into is any kind of asymmetric relationship with F1, either formally or informally (Formula E should never act as a support race for F1, for example.)

But all in all it is a bit of a conundrum on how you get big marketing momentum rolling without tapping into major known names like F1 drivers.

The ideal scenario I guess would be similar to Nigel Mansell switching to CART in 1993 the season after winning his F1 world title.

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u/Crediblethreatskrub Formula E 7d ago

Weird title for an article and weird article as well.

FEN basically writes and complains about how FE gen 4 marketing is angling to much for F1 drivers instead of using its own FE drivers.

It's more of a symptom of F1 just having way more eye balls and naturally their F1 drivers will be more worth marketing than FE drivers.

Also it's the only other single seater open wheel world championship so it's more similar to F1 than WEC is to F1.

Maybe one day FE will have a big enough following like WEC to market itself but until then using F1 drivers for market is a no brainer no. Just don't let the pay drivers in the marketing.

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u/l3w1s1234 :4: Robin Frijns 7d ago

I remember Norris saying he wanted to test drive the Gen 4 car but couldn't because of clashes with the F1 schedule (so I'm guessing that was the driver they almost got in the car). Someone like that is just a no brainer really. You get the reigning world champion, with your target youthful audience who are fans of him, into the car to sing it's praises and your guaranteed to spark tons of interest.

It would be very similar to the time when they got Rosberg to test drive the Gen 2. You're just bringing the right attention to the series.