This season there was a face in the Formula E paddock familiar to anyone who followed Premier League football (soccer in American parlance). Jermaine Jenas is a former Premier League and England player, who featured 280 times in England’s top division, as well as more than 20 times for his national team. Since retiring in 2016, he has gone on to forge a successful broadcasting career in the UK. Of course, it’s not too unusual to see retired athletes move into broadcasting, but they tend to remain in their chosen sport. Jenas hasn’t done that, instead becoming the face of Formula E’s global feed in what has been quite the unusual career move.
“I’ve loved it,” Jenas tells RACER of his first year in the Formula E fold. “It’s been a real learning curve for me. Coming into a brand-new sport as a presenter and how much it moves, how much it changes, you’ve just got to have your wits about you — with live sport in general, but with Formula E it’s even more so. When you’re on that grid and there’s loads going on, I love it. The energy around it has been incredible.
“Mexico, I found really tough, if I’m honest,” he adds. “It was like, ‘Jump in the middle of that crowd.’ I was like, ‘This is mad!’
“By the time I got to the doubleheader in Diriyah, I was like, ‘OK, I’m getting it now. I know the rhythm,’ and as a team, we started to understand each other a lot better as well. So all in all, it’s been an unbelievable experience.”
Jenas is no stranger to the crowds like the 40,000-plus that showed up in Mexico, but motorsport gives a level of accessibility unseen in many other sports. The fans tend to be less bloodthirsty, too. Jenas says that sort of access is a huge asset, and while he appreciates it’s not something that can exist in football, it can still be something of a lesson for it.
“I think accessibility is the big thing really,” he says. “You’re working in different worlds, though, essentially. I think that if you work around football and understand the intensity of fans, and you know how quickly it can turn, you don’t have that type of anger in this stadium.
“When I played football, it was part of the thing I loved. When I was in a tunnel, I could hear the away fans, that hate for you. It’s like walking out into a coliseum of some sort, where you’re like, ‘Right, we’ve got to deliver today, lads.’ I’ve never once been at a Formula E race and sensed any animosity towards any driver or any team.
“I think they’re the differences that people sometimes don’t understand. Logistically it’s hard to manage. Don’t get me wrong, I think football clubs are doing a better job now than they’ve ever done in terms of getting fans as close as they can — and the right fans as well, the ones that are turning up week in week out — to their heroes.You can always learn from all sports, but I think football in particular, it’s its own beast. So much accessibility could cause a problem, too, so you’ve just got to be careful.”
Adapting to working in a new sport may have been a learning experience for Jenas, but being an athlete and being thrust into that sort of environment once again, Jenas has seen parallels between his new job and his former life.
“They’re all competitive, and they’re all striving to be the best they can possibly be,” he says. “I think that’s one of my biggest attributes to present this. I have days where the driver walks by me and I can look him in the eye and go, ‘I’m not talking to him right now. Leave him alone.’ I know exactly where their head’s at because I’ve been there. I’ve been there as a player when I’m frustrated and I want to kill someone, and I’ve been there when I’ve had a great weekend and I’m happy.
“I kind of feel like I know the words to use, how to describe them. I feel like there’s that mutual respect between us, because we’ve had to compete at the top level to get what we want. And I think anytime you come across athletes and you know the journey like that, there is that natural mutual respect.”
Understanding the mental game is one thing; what the drivers are physically doing is another. But Jenas was able to get close to that feeling after testing a Formula E car in Berlin alongside co-host Nicki Shields and commentator Tom Brooks. It gave him not just a deeper appreciation of Formula E but cars in general, having had only a casual interest in them to that point.
“I got to drive one in Berlin, which was insane, really,” he beams, still seemingly somewhat in disbelief that he had the opportunity. “For them to allow me to go out on a track and drive one is cool. I’ve loved cars since I was a young person, (but) more at face value.
“I was young, (had) no money, (then) I became a professional footballer (and I thought) what can I get? I had them all, and it was great.
“But when you talk to these guys about their cars, it’s a different depth. And, it’s not on the surface –it goes much deeper, so you learn a lot along the way. It’s how they grew up, essentially. I kind of get that flavor again when I’m like, ‘Oh, I might dip my toe back in,’ but I’ve got four kids and all they do is put their feet all over the back of the seats and ruin them. So I’m like, ‘We’ll wait till they’re a bit older.’”
While Range Rovers, Lamborghinis, and Ferraris are a footballer’s go-to, has Jenas’ Formula E experience tempted him to go electric with his next big purchase?
“Actually, yeah,” he says. “I had a BMW i8 for a little while. I don’t drive a lot, weirdly enough, I’ll take the kids to school and back, and that’s about it, which I really enjoy. I’m in the process right now looking at one of those new Mercedes as well.
“But that’s the interesting thing about the sport. All this brand-new technology that we get in Formula E is basically what’s happening on the road. Yeah, I’ll probably end up in an electric car.”