Formula E’s Evo Sessions track days in Miami gave a unique opportunity to get media personalities behind the wheel of the series’ GEN3 Evo racing cars so that they could experience what it’s like to be a professional racing driver – and take fans along for the ride, too. (That’s Alexandra Mary Hirschi, an Australian social media celebrity, presenter and vlogger known online as Supercar Blondie, pictured above in Nissan’s car ahead of her Evo Sessions run.)

But in the Lola Yamaha Abt garage, there was someone who fit in both camps. Scott Mansell has a well-established online presence, with his Driver61 YouTube channel having 1.34 million subscribers, but has also enjoyed a career as a professional driver across a plethora of series.

“I got a call from Formula E, and they said to me, ‘Would you like to come to Miami to drive a Formula E car?’ and I said, ‘Yes, absolutely!’” Mansell tells RACER of how his Evo Sessions opportunity came about. “Then they put me together with Lola Yamaha Abt, and all went from there.

“It’s a crazy idea, right? Putting some celebrities or creators in proper racing cars sounds absolutely crazy, and I think Formula E probably did a great job to convince the teams to actually do it in the first place. But then as we went through the couple of days, you could feel that it was a fantastic success.”

All involved didn’t just jump into the car and go. Each went through a lengthy preparation process with their assigned teams, but for Mansell, it was as if he was going racing once again.

“Every creator that I spoke to approached it in a very systematic and fairly careful way. I think it was a great success for all of the teams,” he says.

“I think some of the other drivers did have some racing or track experience, but obviously not as deep and as long as mine. I approached it like I was going racing, to be honest with you. I spent a couple of days in the simulator, I did as many laps as I could, I spoke to the engineers as much as I possibly could. I wanted to understand these cars as much as possible, and I had the same approach when I went to the racetrack.”