Sam Coleman: “We’ve Been Here Before”

Heading over to Miami means that you have raced in three different continents this season, the only UIM Championship that currently does that, can you see the series expanding any further?

Yeah, excited to be in Miami, it’s great that we’ve already taken E1 to four continents in only season 2, so it truly is a global championship. I believe there’s very promising discussions of another new destination or two for next season which would be awesome.

Obviously the 2026 Race Calendar hasn’t been made public yet, but do you have any ambitions to race E1 in Cardiff Bay where UIM World Championships have raced previously?

To bring E1 to Cardiff Bay, being Welsh of course would be a dream for me. We get to race in some incredible locations, but a Welsh round would be super cool personally. It’s not something that’s in any current discussions, but perhaps I should spark some conversations! Cardiff Bay has hosted some incredible events, and it’s a great arena there too, we raced inside the barrier with P1 Superstock in 2016 and it was a great event.

Team Monaco was announced this week brining the series up to a potential ten teams for the 2026 season. How soon do you think it would be before a British based entrepreneur sets up a race team; have you been knocking on Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s door recently?

I haven’t got Sir Jim’s number unfortunately, I’ve walked past his yacht a few times in Monaco but haven’t knocked on the door yet, if anyone has a contact please introduce me!

The Team Monaco announcement is great for the sport; Monte Carlo is synonymous with motorsport, often called the jewel in the crown of the F1 calendar, to have a Monegasque team along with racing there shows the value E1 has to icons of global sport. We’ve had 2 great events in the principality and I’m looking forward to returning there next year. To have the support of his serene highness Prince Albert at an event and team level is great for the future of E1, receiving a trophy from him was quite surreal moment for me!

This season you have raced in some great venues, of those, which one would you go back to for a holiday and which have you found most challenging?

As you say we’re fortunate to race in many iconic locations. My wife comes to most of the events, and we’ll try to tag a couple days on as a holiday, it’s hard to pick a favourite at the moment! This year’s highlights have probably been Dubrovnik and Monaco for post event breaks. Dubrovnik for the history and a bit of swimming and cliff jumping, sadly my wife couldn’t make that one but one of the mechanics and I had a lovely time! Monaco is great for exploring the south of France, I love cycling, and for that the south of France is hard to beat. As for most challenging, all the events are challenging, it’s a busy schedule through the race week so always appreciate a day or so after to enjoy the locations. We have the same challenges all other on water events have with the unpredictability of the water and weather. We had some crazy rain and lightning in Lagos, so that compressed the schedule a lot on race day. We had an incredible welcome in Lagos, it felt like an event that the city got behind, with unofficial parties in the neighbouring parks, offices, and hotels to the race site, so next year I’m looking forward to doing more exploring there.

Tom Brady was there in Monaco earlier this season watching the race, does having him there create added pressure to deliver the right result?

Having Tom at our events is a big positive for us, he’s part of the team and would be an ever-present if his schedule would allow it. Tom being on event doesn’t add any more pressure to perform than we put on ourselves, as a team we’re always working towards the best result possible. That approach doesn’t change when Tom’s in town, if anything having his support there gives us all a lift and we’re proud to represent as Team Brady; the only sporting investment of his to carry his name.

Last season prior to the final race you topped the championship with a thirteen-point lead over Team Miami, you now head to the season finale once again leading the series but this time with just a three-point lead over Team Rafa. Is it just Tom Chiappe and Cris Lizárraga you need to keep in your mirrors?

Last year we had a bit more of a buffer to our challengers entering the final round, but we we’re still aware that it’s not only the team closest to you in the championship points to keep an eye on. It’s the same this year, just closer. Tom and Cris have been super-fast all year, and Blue Rising have been consistently chipping away to be contenders too. With the E1 format, and points structure, it would be naive to discount Aoki in 4th too they’re fast and anything can happen. We’ve been here before and we’ll approach it the same as every event, focus on ourselves to be as competitive as we can and take it race by race.

Both Tom and Cris come from a waterborne racing background do you think it gives them an advantage?

Absolutely, even though there’s a big element to piloting the Racebird that’s nothing like traditional PB racing. These guys have grown up on the water, that water experience is invaluable, but you need to know how to apply it to this new machine and when to ignore it. If you can lean on a vast experience of water conditions and apply the principles required to fly the Racebird it’s a dangerous combination. Then take someone like my co-pilot Emma, she’s incredible because she’s got a great feel and high racing intelligence which means she’s adapted quicky to be super-fast despite suffering from sea sickness and never having raced on water!

Are you expecting any major up-grades to the RaceBirds for the finale?

We’re not expecting any major upgrades for the finale, everything is sea freighted, so the boats have been a few weeks in transit from Lagos to Miami. There’s an extensive winter refit program after Miami to get the boats rebuilt before shipping off for the start of the 2026 season towards the end of January, and there are performance and reliability parts in test that may be rolled out early in season 3 too.

When you sit down for your team meeting how far in advance do you get to see the course layout and do the pilots get any say in the layout?

We have regular team Brady performance meetings, but we don’t often have the course to hand till a week or so before the event. As a young championship that is evolving E1 have a platform to try new things with the course layouts and formats. There are a lot of factors that go into producing the course layout; with TV product, hospitality, on and off water site restrictions all needing careful consideration. We have a pilots committee, which Cris Lazarraga heads up, if there’s anything we feel strongly about we’ll get together in the days leading up to the event to discuss and propose any potential changes, it’s good that we have a voice as pilots because we’re the ones who best understand the challenges of the Racebird but the final say of course is down to the race director.