Christopher BarrettHaving followed his dad into the events industry, Roger Hooker had worked on many landmark events. As event operations director at ABB Formula E FIA World Championship he has been part of the electric motorsport’s rapid rise.
What led you to become involved in the events industry?
My father was production manager at the NEC Birmingham, he started there when they first broke ground to build the site. As a young child I used to go with him to visit at weekends during the build up of exhibitions, music or sporting events. Sometimes I would see the transformation when the events were open. That kid in shorts, reaching up to hold his dad’s hand, had a very special early insight into the steps leading up to ‘doors opening’.
Have you always been interested in motorsport?
Interestingly, no. I was around for the F1 duels between Senna, Prost, Mansell and Hill. Sunday lunchtime TV viewing in most households was fuelled by the genius, excitable, commentary of Murray Walker but I never thought I would be part of a Motorsport World Championship, touring the globe to stage races in cities.
When did you first get involved in Formula E and what have been the highlights since?
I joined at the end of Season 2, when the series had impressively got going and its organisers wanted to bring in non-motorsport events experience. I had experience of numerous environments as a venue operator, event promoter and services contractor – Wembley, Ascot Racecourse, London 2012 and Singapore Sports Hub to name a few. It was a unique opportunity to join Formula E at an exciting stage of growth. The complexity of building pop-up tracks and a venue in busy city centres, to an immoveable deadline, and having a village of facilities for 1500 users involved in the event, and staging these in quick succession around the World, is still staggering. Every location requires detailed planning, with flexibility, and can only be achieved by a deep commitment and sense of collaborative teamwork. Racing at night in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia under floodlights to launch our new World Championship, and cars leaving the grid inside the London ExCeL Centre to head outdoors in a world first for single-seater motorsport were two goosebump moments.
Have there been any memorable challenges overcome?
Every location has its challenges, the past 16 months especially. We have faced tropical storms, possible earthquakes, political disturbances, lockdowns, cultural differences, and evacuations of site zones to name a few.
The pandemic has been remarkably difficult for the events industry but has anything good come out of the experience?
Yes. We developed new methods and operations much quicker than we ever would have done otherwise. Our operations manual was torn up and in many ways we started again. With a herculean effort and commitment, a small group of individuals designed, from zero, a world-class system to enable the championship to travel safely and complete the season. How we do things in the future I am sure will be traced back to that monumental effort over these past 16 months.
Formula E has grown rapidly in a short space of time, what does the future look like and what’s next for you as a World Championship.
Formula E is only seven years old and in that time we have reached FIA World Championship status, which was a huge achievement in such a short space of time. In the years to come, we are looking to continuing to grow and connect new fans with an environmentally conscious sport. Battery technology has advanced at such a rapid rate and our new race car which will be launched in the coming year is going to be a great reflection of this. From an event hosting point of view, we’ve been a net carbon zero championship for a while now and we will be using our platform to share our learnings and practices with any sports or event keen to learn and help support our mission of protecting the environment.