Beth Paretta has joined Formula E as its new VP of Sporting, a role that will have her overseeing sporting and on-track matters in the all-electric championship.
Paretta will report directly to Formula E co-founder and chief championship officer Alberto Longo, and will be the key figure between the series, its teams, and the FIA.
“The idea is to be the liaison between the Formula E series – so interfacing between the series and the FIA, the Formula E series, and all of the automotive manufacturers, making sure that those manufacturers who are in the series are getting what they need from it technically,” Paretta told RACER of her new role. “There’s a broader story there in that it follows what they need marketing-wise, but (also) technically, both where those car companies are today, and then where their future plans are taking them. Because when you have multiple car companies, you have multiple future plans and agendas that they all need to meet. And then ideally also forwarding new OEMS to the series.
Paretta joins Formula E with extensive industry experience, having held executive leadership roles at Volkswagen, Aston Martin, and Fiat Chrysler (now Stellantis) on the automotive side, and within motorsport, running Paretta Autosport, co-founding Women in Motorsports North America, serving on the board of directors of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America and being a delegate to the FIA Women in Motorsport Commission.
It puts her in an ideal position to work in a series populated by numerous manufacturers that are using it to develop and promote new technologies.
“They speak different languages, and I would like to believe that maybe I can speak a bit of both,” she said. “There are a lot of racing teams that are often owned by ex-racing drivers, and yes, the actual day-to-day operations of going racing, that’s a discipline in and of itself.