Racing Towards Future

the challenges of a formula-e team

It's not widely understood, but the difference between Formula 1 and Forumla E is not just what powers the cars. While the technology between an internal combustion engine and electric motor is not the same in any way, the biggest differences are the sustainability and climate goals that Formula-E works within: everything they do must adhere to a number of travel, budget and carbon footprint restrictions that formula 1 does not have - and this makes racing much harder.

credits

Directed & edited by: Dario Nucci
DOP: Zimmy Da Kid
Motion GFX: Martijn Rijven

For the start of Formula-E's 9th season, Maurice Lacroix reinforced their support of Mahindra Racing with a new team watch that pushed the limits of design, and brought their sustainability goals even closer.

Maurice Lacroix's innovative AIKON #Tide watch does it's own part in climate issues by using recycled ocean plastic to produce it's watches.

Being a relatively new championship, part of the creative challenge for the film campaign was educating viewers about the demands faced by Formula-E teams in the pursuit of speed, and how EV innovation is accelerated through racing.

As a challenger brand in their own industry, Maurice Lacroix wants to be associated of this new generation of motorsports and support their race towards a better future.

The 3rd generation race car pushes the overall power up to 350Kw, taking its top speed to around 300km/h. To increase efficiency, the car is lighter and makes use a two motors instead of on, which means that a set of brakes on the back wheels are no longer needed since the regeneration resistance creates enough stopping power to fulfil their function.

creative & film directing

We developed the idea and managed the content production, throughout the project. Having realised early on the greater challenge of educating people on Formula E, we knew that there were a number of complex messages we needed to get across for people to understand what makes EV racing so exciting.

message

The overall message was clearly focussed on the shared values of Mahindra Racing and Maurice Lacroix. Innovation and the pursuit of performance made this partnership a perfect match, which allowed us to explore notions of teamwork, training and defining what success really means.

Editing and design

Having done the interviews, it was easy to extrude the storyline for the social media by editing the 3min film first. Alpha handled the editing process internally and then outsourced the title animation and colour grading which proved to be really cost-effective.

production

Alpha produced the 3min interview film and social media campaign by drawing material from multiple sources, with relatively low production cost and time. We shot the main interview at Mahindra HQ in the UK, with both drivers and simulation training. Then we used local crews to shoot the track testing in Valencia and mixed in some archive racing footage with motion GFX to round it off.

social media

We created 8 x 30sec social media edits which reveal various aspects of the Formula E world. The focus of each edit shifts through drivers, technology, car stats, simulation training, goals, challenges and ultimately ends with the AIKON #Tide Mahindra Racing Edition watch. The sequence builds the story in a logical way.

The title animations were created by Martijn Rijven of Bolt Graphics, in vertical and horizontal formats.

product

With the introduction of the 3rd generation race car, Maurice Lacroix released the AIKON #Tide Mahindra Racing Edition watch, which pushed design and technology by producing a case which is made completely from recycled ocean plastic. The watch is light, extremely durable and tough enough to be worn by the whole engineering team.

Racing towards the future