Ellie Norman: Recreating F1 Success in Formula E
Ellie Norman is a big believer in the power of the individual.
There was plenty of evidence of that during her four years as global director of marketing and communications at Formula One, where she was one of the first key executive hires after Liberty media officially took over the series in 2017.
When Norman arrived,Formula One was well established as the world’s leading motorsport series but had invested little in fan engagement. so Norman set out to reimagine the championship as a modern, accessible entertainment property, leaning heavily into social and digital platforms to humanise the drivers and use their stories to bring new fans into the sport.
By the time she departed in 2022, following a stint which included overseeing Formula One’s first major rebrand in 23 years, Norman had laid the groundwork that has enabled Formula One to both grow and diversify it’s fanbase around the world.
Now, she is looking to achieve similar success at Formula E, which she joined as chief marketing officer in October 2024 after a brief spell heading up communications for Premier League giants Manchester United. While the marketing channels available to Norman and her team have evolved since 2017, she says that the fundamental principles of growing the sport’s audience remain the same.
“My mantra and ethos has always been that people buy people,” Norman tells SportsPro. “That very much was a catalyst for how do we open up the [Formula One] paddock, start to tell more of the stories around the drivers themselves, their journeys into the sport, the highs and the lows, the rivalries.
“Now, I think that is as true for Formula E as it is for other sports. Today, so many new fans come to a sport through the athlete or the driver, and so the similarity and the chance is to have the driver share more about their journeys, their personalities, what interests them outside of racing, or how they’ve got to where they are.and I think by doing that, it really grows the interest and the appeal and the stickiness of the league itself.
“So I would say that’s relevant for us today in Formula E, and it was certainly relevant for Formula One when I joined in 2017.”
Ellie Norman joined Formula E in 2024 after a successful stint at Formula One (Image credit: Getty Images)
an urban,open-minded and progressive fanbase
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Convincing fans to follow what remains a relatively new motorsport series presents a different challenge to growing the fanbase of a sports property with the heritage and prestige of Formula One.
When it arrived on the scene in 2014, Formula E was positioned as the poster child for more sustainable sport, offering car manufacturers a platform to show off their electric vehicle technology at tracks in major international cities. That has not only attracted major automotive brands like Nissan, Audi and BMW over the years, but also appealed to sponsors such as DHL, Julius Baer and Google Cloud.
While sustainability remains core to Formula E’s identity, Norman acknowledges that there is now a focus on promoting the high stakes, entertainment and competitiveness that are central to building the series’ credibility as an elite sport.
At the same time, its environmentally amiable roots mean Formula E has naturally appealed to an audience outside what might have historically been considered the core motorsport fanbase. Norman characterises the series’ fans as urban,open-minded and progressive,noting that sport is part of their “entertainment diet” alongsid
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