“It was boring until the last corner of the last lap when the second guy tried to overtake the leader and they had a massive crash,” he said.
“The emotion and the accident – everyone was safe – created a huge buzz and Formula E has since skyrocketed.”
Di Grassi, the champion of Formula E 2016/17 series who drives for Audi, said the race was drawing a younger audience.
“Some kids have been to many Formula E races and when they go to combustion they think it is way too noisy and they don’t like it at all. Formula E sounds and looks much more like a video game than normal combustion,” he said.
He said air pollution levels were at critically high levels in developing countries and governments needed to move quicker.
“Developing countries like Brazil, China and India have precarious ways of cooking, transport, energy production which has a huge impact on air pollution,” said di Grassi, who expects half of cars in developed nations to be electric by 2030.
“As U.N. advocate, I will – especially in developing countries – be holding events, using social media, videos and talking to governments on this topic to push this technology.”