Inside Sport

Leo Manzo is Head of Sustainability at E1 Series, the world's first electric race boat championship, a role he pitched to CEO Rodi Basso himself, built around the idea that sport can mobilise its diverse stakeholders to do real environmental good. In this episode, Leo explains what makes E1 genuinely different from other sustainable motorsports: its electric RaceBirds create no wake and dramatically less noise pollution, both above and below the water, with early tests even showing improved communication among birds and marine life when the boats are running. He walks through the Blue Impact Dialogues (panel discussions with leading marine scientist Professor Carlos Duarte), the newly launched Blue Impact Championship rewarding teams for environmental action, the mandatory one-male-one-female pilot rule on every team, and the long-term hunt for a Blue Carbon partner, the concept, pioneered by Duarte, that restoring marine ecosystems could be essential to hitting global carbon neutrality targets. Episode recorded in February 2025.

John Marlow is co-team principal of Team Alula, one of E1 Series' newest teams, his first time leading a team, having previously worked in electric and hybrid powertrains across Formula One and WRC. In this episode, he explains why he and co-principal Barney saw E1's spec-boat, hydro-foiling format as the right place to bring that experience, how the team built its pilot lineup around a Red Bull athlete with season-one E1 experience and a rookie-of-the-year contender from F1 H2O, and what it's actually like building a race team from scratch in only its second season including how AlUla's own conservation programmes shaped the partnership, and what it means to build alongside a high-profile owner like LeBron James. Episode recorded in February 2025.

Ben Wray has been E1's Head of Events for just over a year, joining before the series had ever held a race, growing the team from three people to nearly six. In this episode, he explains what it takes to bring an entirely new sport to a city: multi-day site reconnaissance trips that include actually driving the race course by boat to test how close fans can get to the action, the criteria that rule cities in or out (course size and depth, fan zone potential, sustainability alignment), and how the global calendar is built around freight logistics, shipping regions together to minimise E1's footprint. Ben also talks about tailoring the fan experience city by city, from cultural sensitivities in the GCC region to STEM-focused school outreach, and reveals that a brand-new venue, on a continent E1 has never raced on before, is already in the works. Episode recorded in February 2025.

Sara Misir is one of Team Blue Rising's new pilots this season and her path to E1 Series runs through show jumping, a serious injury, and a breakout career in Jamaican motorsport. After a horse-riding accident at 17 ended her Olympic ambitions, Sara turned to go-karting and car racing, becoming the first female champion in modified production racing history in Jamaica. When E1's Pilot Academy came calling, she had days to get from Jamaica to Monaco with no boating experience and no equipment. In this episode, she talks about learning to race a RaceBird in a matter of days, why she finds racing on water more like riding a horse than driving a car, how boost strategy and unpredictable ocean conditions completely change race craft, and what it means to hold one of the sport's guaranteed 50/50 gender-split seats. Episode recorded in February 2025.

Asher Erskine has been E1's Head of Design since the very start, joining when the company was little more than a handful of people around a ping-pong table in London, and the RaceBird existed only as a render. In this episode, he walks through how E1's entire visual identity came to life: nine team liveries deliberately kept distinct from each other (and largely off-limits to motorsport's classic red-white-black), a custom typeface inspired by NASA's original branding, a colour palette drawn entirely from the ocean (with names like "deep sea black" and "ocean spray white") and a coral pink chosen specifically because it's the most visible colour against every shade of water E1 races on. Asher also talks about designing the GPS-tracked SmartMarks buoys, working with creative agency Mother Design to build the brand from scratch, and running design workshops with school kids to show them design is a viable career path. Episode recorded in February 2025.

Manfred Sandbichler is Hankook Tyre's Motorsport Director, and has led the company's Formula E programme since it became the series' official tyre supplier in the 2022/23 season. In this episode he explains the unique engineering challenge of building a race tyre for electric cars - extreme torque, a single compound that has to perform in everything from Mexico City's early-morning cold to Jakarta's 40°C+ heat, and a "no in-race changes" rule that leaves zero margin for error. Manfred also discusses how Hankook develops tyres years ahead of a car's track debut, why old race tyres are sent to Spain for recycling, and how lessons learned at 200+ km/h eventually filter down into the tyres on the road cars we drive. Episode recorded in February 2025.

Beth Paretta is Formula E's VP of Sporting, effectively "VP of Competition" the person sitting at the intersection of the FIA, every OEM on the grid (Nissan, Jaguar, Porsche, Stellantis, Mahindra), and the teams themselves. Less than a year into the role, she's already been at the centre of launching PitBoost, Formula E's new ultra-fast in-race charging technology.

Before Formula E, Beth ran her own IndyCar team: the first majority-women team in professional open-wheel racing history, with women in every role from driver to engineers to the commercial team, backed by Roger Penske. In this episode she explains how PitBoost actually got built and tested, why Formula E only deploys it on double-header weekends, how she ended up making the jump from her own team into this role, and why she believes Formula E's diehard-racing credibility, not just its innovation story, is still the sport's best-kept secret. Episode recorded in February 2025.

Molly Simpson is one of just three Event Experience Managers running fan-facing experiences across the entire Formula E calendar, podiums, ceremonies, fan villages, driver meet-and-greets, and often juggling multiple races and time zones at once.

In this episode she pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to build a race weekend from scratch, from tendering local suppliers in a brand-new city like Miami, to tailoring content so it lands with fans everywhere from Italy to Jeddah (a pizza-spinner activation that works in one market can flop in another), to the quiet logistics of things like reusable eco-cups and sustainably-sourced confetti. It's a conversation about what actually goes into "fun" and why safety, welfare and sustainability always come before the fireworks. Episode recorded in February 2025.

Julia Pallé has been shaping Formula E's sustainability strategy since day one! 11 years ago, as its first Sustainability Manager, now as VP of Sustainability. In this episode she explains how the series has grown from an environmental mission into something broader "accelerating sustainable human progress" through programmes like Girls on Track, which has reached 4,500 girls since its launch, and initiatives that leave a lasting legacy in every city Formula E visits. Julia also breaks down PitBoost, a new ultra-fast charging technology that can deliver 10% battery charge in 30 seconds, and reveals how the series cut its logistics footprint by 25% simply by removing an entire cargo plane from its global operation. It's a conversation about proving that racing and sustainability don't have to be a trade-off, they can push each other forward. Episode recorded in February 2025.

Ellie Norman is Formula E's CMO, having joined in October 2024 after a career spanning football's biggest club, Manchester United, the transformation era of Formula 1 under Liberty Media, and roles across media, entertainment and automotive marketing before that. In this episode she unpacks what she's learned moving between football and motorsport, why she believes the next wave of growth will come from a younger, experience-hungry fanbase, and how Formula E is using unconventional plays, like pairing 11 major personalities, including Brooklyn Peltz Beckham, with its race teams for a first-of-its-kind event in Miami, to reach audiences who've never watched a race before. It's a conversation about fandom, authenticity, and what it actually takes to build a sport's audience from the ground up. Episode recorded in February 2025.