There’s nothing quite like watching racing live, especially if you wind up in the hospitality section. At the top of the very opulent pile is Formula 1, but what about its electric cousin Formula E? The E-Prix equivalent of F1’s extravagant Paddock Club is the “Emotion Club,” and I recently had a chance to check it out for myself in Miami.
As far as watching the race goes, it’s pretty similar to a Grand Prix. You can go out onto a balcony where the front straight, pits, and a couple of corners are visible. The rest of it, you’re watching on TV from a comfortable chair. What surrounds that chair is what we’re ultimately judging the Emotion Club on. That and the “premium gift” you apparently get while attending.
The food and drinks are pretty decent
If you arrive early on you’ll be greeted with a smoothie and a large buffet which includes an omelet station, cold cuts, bread, cheeses, and fruit. There are also a couple of coffee bars to choose from, should you need a little caffeine to pick you up before qualifying. Different meals are served throughout the day with fish, beef, and jackfruit cropping up at lunch alongside rice and various vegetable sides. Dinner saw a high quality selection of sandwiches and other items. The meat and bread hung around throughout the day, so you can always assemble a kind of proto-Italian sub at any point. Even if it is in a gluten free dinner roll.
As you might expect there is a free bar too. It has a solid selection of beers, wines, spirits, and non-alcoholic options. The spirits can either be taken neat or in cocktail form, and a smoothie station is also present if you want something a little more filling. If it gets a little quiet, you get de-facto table service. The people collecting glasses asked me and several others if we’d like another drink a few times. There’s also a guy wandering around refilling people’s champagne glasses, but some weird law of the universe means he only appears when I personally have gone to the bar and collected my own glass. Alternatively, I just have very poor timing.
Pit lane visits are an option
A good pit lane walk is the highlight of any Paddock Club visit. It gives fans a chance to see how the garages operate to an extent, get up close and personal with the cars themselves, and walk within spitting distance of the track (please do not spit on the track). The Emotion Club has this too, and you’re free to stroll along at your own pace or listen to a semi-guided tour on the way. It’s hard to miss the pit lane walk, it’s pretty loudly announced in the club itself, and from there you can either wait at the reception or follow one of the many people carrying large signs if you want to take part.
If you want to get on the track itself (and can’t grab a gridwalk sticker) then there are a couple of racing simulators in the Emotion Club, along with a leaderboard. Sim racing isn’t easy, and the free bar certainly does not help, so I’d recommend hitting this one shortly after you arrive if you don’t want to spend 90% of your lap hitting the safety barrier. I fully intend to take my time to my grave, it was not worth writing down.
It’s a bit of a corporate playground
The Emotion Club is not really full of individuals, and that’s probably the most striking difference with F1’s premium experience as things stand. It’s somewhat corporate focused, which is a bit of a double edged sword.
So, on the one hand, I can see why businesses love this. It’s a great day out, at a “green” event, that won’t damage your ear drums. Loads of other businesses will be there too, so it’s a prime networking opportunity. It’s also a place you can bring staff, executives, and clients to enjoy a bit of spectacle and glamor — whether they’re into racing or not.
The downside is, if you’re there as an individual, seating can be somewhat hard to find. The majority of the tables are reserved for a sponsor or a company attending the event, so you may have to flex your own networking muscle and make some friends if you want to find a place to park up for a little while. This is one of the things that will likely change as the sport grows, and more unreserved seating becomes necessary. But for now, you can’t really blame Formula E for making sure the companies buying the majority of the Emotion Club tickets have a place to sit.
Electric hot laps depend on who you know
Another parallel with F1 comes in the form of Hot Laps, and as you would expect they’re all performed in electric cars. Several of these
My lap was with the frankly excellent Bruno Correia, who is also the Safety Car driver for Formula E and the medical car driver for Formula 1. He’s the sort of chap that could take things to the limit while pushing you around in a shopping cart, and he paired very well with the Porsche Taycans some of the laps were being delivered in. This was one of the best hot laps I’ve ever experienced, despite the track’s shorter length and relative flatness.
As for how you can get one, it’s who you know I’m afraid. The sessions are reserved for Formula E teams and the series’ partners — a bit like they are in F1. This is obviously due to the timing involved, there’s a very tight window where these can take place. But if you ever get the chance to go with a major Formula E sponsor it makes the day in the Emotion Club that little bit better.
A decent day out, with an apt free gift
So, how does Formula E’s hospitality rate in the grand scheme of things? It’s actually one of the better luxury racing experiences you’ll have. Between the food, the drinks selection, the activities on offer, and of course the race itself — you shouldn’t be bored. The club itself is open until 5 pm, long after the race ends, so you definitely have time to soak up the atmosphere too. Obviously, given the roughly $3,500 price point, a race enthusiast is likely to just grab a grandstand ticket and hit the Shawarma Shack when they get peckish. But if you have the cash to splash, or you get an invite, it’s a solid day out.
A couple of things listed on the Emotion Club website were missing, or I simply missed them. I didn’t see a live DJ, though there was a band playing the stage behind the grandstand which was also broadcast in the club itself. I didn’t see an “Exclusive Q and A session” either, though again this could have happened when I was walking the pit lane, taking my hot lap, or checking out the general admission areas.
As for the free gift, it was a set of dominos in a nice little presentation case. On the face of it, it’s a bit out of left field. In reality, it’s as Miami as things get. The game has a long history there, there’s even a bit of green space in Little Havana that the locals affectionately call “Domino Park.” Let’s hope Formula E is equally as well established one day.
