Q&A: The E1 Pilots of Team Westbrook, Owned by Will Smith

How did you get into E1 racing?

Sara: I come from off road racing, I started on motocross, then ended up being in off-road vehicles and then I used to race another series called Extreme E, which is owned by some of the same owners. And so I was one of the first ones in the pot to get asked to see if I wanted to do this.

But growing up, I always went to the desert and to the river. So boats were already a large part of my life. I actually have my own beach now – so I live it every day. I now live an hour and a half south of Las Vegas in a place called Mohave Valley, Arizona.

Lucas: My background is car racing. In 2008, I won Gran Turismo, the virtual competition, then went into race car driving: Le Mans 24 hours and other things.

I retired after COVID, but then I heard about E1. I heard about Rafa Nadal joining this series four years ago and then I tried to reach my colleagues at Formula E as they are the same owners as E1.

I followed the process to become an E1 Series pilot and then Sarah and I met each other in the academy to get the official licence. They then signed us for Will Smith’s team and here we are.

Are there lots of fundamentals in common between racing on land and racing E1 boats?

Sara: In general, racing's kind of racing, and so we are used to controlling a machine. So, it's the same fundamentals in a sense.

Obviously, it's different when it comes to technique and the things we have to watch out for. But it's still a racing craft and that’s why you see a bunch of racers from different sports coming into this. 

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What do you love about it?

Lucas: Well, the places we go are much cooler than in my car racing career.

The venues, the atmosphere – it’s more relaxed and less stressful, less fighting against the teams. I think we feel like a family in this championship.

But racing and kind of flying above the water, it's a very, very cool feeling.

Every team has a female and a male pilot. How important is that to you?

Sara: I think it's awesome. When you put a helmet on, it doesn't matter what gender you are.

And that's one thing that's awesome about the type of sports that I do, especially car racing, off road racing, boat racing: it doesn't matter what gender you are. There's no difference in capabilities. But I think, in a room of 100 men, if  there's only one female, you're most likely not gonna choose that female.

And the reason is because the men usually get more experience.

So now this is offering females to get equal opportunity, to get more experience, to get the same skill set as men usually would get. So, now you're seeing the field, and some days, the girls are faster than the men and it's very normal.

Some days Lucas is faster than me, some days I'm faster than him. I think the sport grows because it's giving a place for women to go. 

Lucas: Working with Sara, it's my first time working with, you know, with a female teammate and actually, she's crazier than me.

She controls the nerves a lot better than all the teammates I ever had.

It's crazy how she doesn't care about anything, just going flat out and quick.

Sustainability is a huge part of the race series. What kind of work are you as pilots doing alongside your team to further that outside of the races?

Sara: We wouldn't be able to race in some of these places without the fact that we are racing hydrofoil electric power boats. We're the first ones, I believe, to race in Monaco, in the area we're racing, because of this. We probably wouldn't be able to race here in Dubrovnik without that.

So it's opening doors that you would never see racing actually get to come into because of the impact it has.

The team owner is Will Smith. Is he involved much in and around the team?

Sara: Last year, when we won Lake Como, he was there and it was just so perfect, honestly, all of them.

We get pep talks – always making sure we beat Tom Brady.