When BlackBook Motorsport last sat down with Cupra Kiro 12 months ago, the Formula E outfit was known as Electric Racing Technologies, or ERT for short.
Since then, the team has changed its name not once, but twice, after securing a new owner, with Los Angeles-based private investment firm The Forest Road Company acquiring 100 per cent of the team in October 2024.
It may be one of Formula E’s founding teams, but the Silverstone-based outfit has had anything but a consistent identity in the series. With previous names including China Racing, NextEV and Nio, the Cupra Kiro moniker is now its seventh name change in just 11 seasons having brought the Spanish manufacturer on board ahead of this season.
“I hope not after round three of branding in the last six months alone,” replies Russell O’Hagan, chief operating officer of Cupra Kiro, when asked if another name change was in the offing.
“We were certainly sensitive to the history of this team and [with] the name changes that have occurred we were almost reluctant to do it,” adds Jeremy Tarica, managing director of The Forest Road Company.
“But we felt it was important to turn over the page and have a new beginning here and that’s why the rebrand was key.”
So, while the latest name change meant another rebranding assignment for O’Hagan, he says there is much more to this particular switch.
“Kiro is more than a name, it’s such a fundamental change in who we are,” he explains. The Kiro brand is here to stay and we’re taking it on this long-term journey now and really trying to build Kiro into becoming not only a racing team, but a brand that elevates above a racing team and Formula E as a whole.”
"You’re so funny"
— CUPRA KIRO (@KiroRaceCo) January 29, 2025
Thanks admin has dealt with 15 rebrands over the last 3 seasons.
Formula E is “at an inflection point”
For investors in a Formula One team, they need to pay a hefty price to join a sport that has enjoyed exponential growth under the ownership of Liberty Media. In contrast, it was Formula E’s untapped potential that appealed to Forest Road.
“The real driver is that we think [Formula E] is at an inflection point,” says Tarica. “We think there’s a couple of reasons for it. I would say the most basic is there’s a technological driver here, where you’re seeing the adoption of electric vehicle technology and that adoption is leading to a really exciting product.
“You’re seeing cars that are accelerating faster than Formula One cars. We’re learning just how competitive it is and how unique the sport is. So the macro of Formula E was so exciting to us that owning one of the 11 teams just seemed like a no brainer.”
It also helped that Forest Road had previous dealings with Liberty Global, which acquired a controlling stake in the all-electric series back in June 2024. A simple conversation about why Liberty Global took control of Formula E led to Forest Road being introduced to ERT, as the team was then known.
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“We got connected to the ERT guys and just fell in love with the story of their team and the people that they had and the foundation that they built,” continues Tarica. “[We] felt in a lot of ways that a lot of the struggles they had previously could be fixed by a partnership with us coming in and taking ownership.”
With the next era of technical regulations, Gen4, set to debut in 2026 and five manufacturers currently committed to their introduction, Forest Road believes there is opportunity around the corner, even if motorsport is a new frontier for the firm.
“I didn’t know much about motorsport in general,” admits Tarica. “So humility is key with anything, leave the ego at the door. We definitely were not motorsport experts, I didn’t even understand what it meant that Gen4 was coming up.
“I think some of the best investments you can make are the ones you could be unemotional about and objective about.
“I think if we were motorsport people, we’d have said … is it going to be better than Formula One? That’s not the question, [it’s] is there a ton of growth ahead and is this an exciting time to jump in?”
“Authentic” involvement from Idris Elba and MrBeast
As part of an expanded investment group, acclaimed actor Idris Elba joined Cupra Kiro in February this year, citing the team’s “vision for the future, desire to innovate, and commitment to excellence” as reasons for his arrival.
But how did a Formula E team grab the attention of a movie star? Tarica reveals that a “strong and longstanding” relationship with the actor helped secure the 52-year-old’s involvement.
“[Elba] has really passionate enthusiasm for motorsport, so it was incredibly organic,” says Tarica. “No shade to be thrown at other people that bring in celebrities into team ownership, but our belief is that it needs to be organic and something that they’re really excited by, otherwise it doesn’t feel authentic.
“Fans can sense that it’s not authentic and that’s just the total opposite with Idris where it’s as authentic as it can be.”
The team didn’t stop there with its A-list links. While Formula E organised the Evo Sessions in Miami last month, which saw famous faces such as Brooklyn Peltz Beckham and Sergio Aguero try their hand at driving a Formula E car in a competitive environment, Cupra Kiro went after Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson.
For the uninitiated, MrBeast has the most-subscribed YouTube channel on the entire platform, with more than 383 million subscribers. The 26-year-old is also the third-most-followed creator on TikTok, boasting over 115 million followers. The collaboration meant a chance for Cupra Kiro to transcend the series by getting in front of millions of people that would not usually interact with Formula E.
“We originally met with some executives from MrBeast two years ago in Monaco,” explains O’Hagan. “It’s ebbed and flowed a little bit and then the Evo Sessions just became a very natural point to bring those guys back in.
“The original content was this long-form piece which we’ll see in the summer. We can’t tell you too much about it without ruining some trade secrets, but that’s going to be a great clip.”
MrBeast may have ended up crashing the car on his very first lap, but it did create a very convenient viral clip for the team.
“He was slightly, and only slightly, too aggressive with the throttle and it just spun him around,” laughs O’Hagan. “He did the perfect amount of damage really and then as a memento [we] gave him the front wing end plate.”
Formula E must “stand on its own two feet”
According to Formula E, its global cumulative TV viewership grew 35 per cent year-over-year (YoY) to 491 million during the 2023/24 season. The series has also claimed that the 2025 Mexico City E-Prix delivered a cumulative audience of 10.5 million on CBS, which it said surpassed ‘all but one F1 race for a US broadcast audience in the last two seasons’.
The latter figure, in particular, is a bold statement and would likely be contested by Formula One, which doesn’t release cumulative audience figures. And while it’s perhaps inevitable that other motorsport series are tempted to compare themselves with Formula One, Tarica thinks looking for parallels isn’t so Formula E can try and get one up on a perceived rival.
“I think Formula E definitely needs to stand on its own two feet,” he says. “I think, if anything, the comparison to Formula One is out of admiration and respect. It’s just a comparison that’s helpful to remind people that we’re just getting started and it doesn’t need to come in a competitive sense.”
Comparing viewership numbers is one thing but the gap between Formula E and Formula One is laid bare when looking at the pair’s financial performance. Formula E’s latest accounts show it made a €42.4 million (US$46.4 million) loss in 2022/23. Formula One, meanwhile, posted an operating income of US$492 million in 2024.
Though Formula E’s losses fell 35 per cent YoY, and comparing its results with a far more established series like Formula One is unfair, it doesn’t disguise the fact the championship continually loses money.
While profitability remains elusive, at least for now, Formula E is making important strides where Formula One isn’t, namely with its groundbreaking all-female test session, which is set to expand for this season.
“If in 15 to 20 years, we’re having a much higher percentage of female drivers across all forms of motor racing, it will be a nice thing to sit back and say Formula E actually went out and did something about it,” says O’Hagan.
Tarica adds: “It’s not a PR stunt. I know from speaking to other team owners and being very involved in the decisions we make in our team … there are genuinely women in consideration for driver roles.
“We’re obviously looking to be as competitive as possible, but anything is possible in Formula E. I don’t think you could say the same about other championships.”
So, is it feasible that a woman could be driving in Formula E in the near future?
“In ten years? I would put some money on that,” O’Hagan replies. Tarica is also bullish about the prospect.
“You should ask Jeff Dodds [Formula E’s chief executive] to see if he wants to double down on his Verstappen bet for a female driver in Formula E within the next ten years,” he says.
“I think he’ll take that bet.”
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