FE: Vegas eRace showed promise of eGaming - Agag

Although last week's first-of-its-kind match-up of Formula E racers and sim racers in the Visa Vegas eRace endured a few technical glitches, Formula E founder and CEO Alejandro Agag remains enthusiastic about the concept as a mean of expanding the all-electric series further into the realm of "eGaming."

"Overall Vegas was a fantastic event. We dared to do something that had never been done before," said Agag. "I think the team did an amazing job to put together an event that was very challenging. Obviously, there were some technical glitches, but these were part of the learning curve for this kind of event.

"I'm very grateful to all the drivers who came. Particularly grateful to the three drivers [Lucas di Grassi, Mitch Evans and Jerome D'Ambrosio] who couldn't start and very graciously accepted the technical glitches. I think whoever doesn't try new things doesn't move forward and the whole essence of this was to try something that has never been done before. We learned many lessons that will now become the base for the future of our eSports strategy. Vegas was the beginning of a really bright path for Formula E in eGaming.

"We are trying to focus on two directions. One is using mobile-technology for a more mass-market approach. The results that are coming through from Real Racing 3 and our downloads are an incredible example, with millions of unique users drivng a Formula E car.

"The second is authentic and professional sim racing. We have seen this has great potential - probably to a more reduced market – but to do a league in that space is something that can achieve a great following. We are going to explore both avenues after the great experience of Vegas.

Agag (pictured) said the series is evaluating whether to follow a "big event" strategy like Vegas, with its unheard-of-for-sim-racing $1m purse, or to spread the wealth among multiple events.

"We are measuring the pros and cons. Maybe it's better to do many events that are smaller rather than a big event like this. I think the fact that we were trending on Twitter in CES, above CES, during the race says it all. It's very important to be at these global shows like CES and we may do it again, but for the moment we are going to analyze everything and look at defining the best strategy.

Agag admitted that the technical issues showed more development work is needed, but was adamant that the blend of series racers with gamers provided a unique perspective.

"I think you need to build experience. You need to test all the technical elements involved and that's what we are currently doing," he said. It was the first time for us, but I think the key lesson is on the technical side to look at different ways we can develop the software and the way we produce the race.

"Also, it was fascinating to see how the real drivers and the sim drivers can compete. Having Felix Rosenqvist finish second in the race with professional sim drivers is remarkable. Actually, it was very interesting to see that as the age of the Formula E drivers was going down, their skill was going up. I remember Nick Heidfeld coming to me and saying 'Man, this is difficult!' so you know there is definitely a correlation between age and skill in the video games."