“Lucas was appalled by my racing lines,” says Nicki Shields. She laughs, recalling the “sort of” driving lesson. Shields, a familiar face to Formula E audiences as the world feed and ITV reporter and presenter, had been let loose in the BMW i8 safety car on the Buenos Aires track. Championship contender Lucas di Grassi was the instructor sat in the other bucket seat.

“There were still lots of people around, building the track, so I could only floor it on the main straight,” Shields goes on. “I thought I was really close to the walls but Lucas said I was miles away. When I saw the footage yesterday, there are points where I’ve only got one hand on the steering wheel, at the bottom: breaking every racing rule. Lucas told me off a lot.”

The footage that Shields is referring to will become the first episode of the new CNN show Supercharged. It’s a 30 minute magazine-format programme designed to introduce new audiences to Formula E and unpack more of the context and background to each race.

“The show touches on the sustainability and technological aspects behind Formula E and the cities we visit,” explains Shields. “There’s behind-the-scenes action from the pit lane and the garages, as well as highlights from the race.”

There’s more though. The first episode sees Shields touring the Buenos Aires on an electric scooter and getting to grips with measures to tackle air pollution and gridlock. “We went to visit the widest avenue in the world,” she enthuses. “This is a city that was notorious for congestion and air pollution. On this road, which has 20 lanes of traffic right in the centre of town, they’ve created a rapid bus transport system by converting four lanes in the middle. Instead of taking 45 minutes to get from one end to the other in traffic, you can jump on a bus and it takes 15 minutes. Can you imagine something that could cut through London traffic like that?”

One slight issue: Shields had only ever ridden a moped once before. “I was really nervous,” she confesses. It seems she managed not to fall over though.

While the new show is designed to hook a new, broader audience rather than appealing specifically to motorsports fans, there’s plenty coming up to interest Formula E aficionados, says Shields.

“On the Thursday before the Buenos Aires race, I did a track walk with Antonio Felix da Costa, last year’s race winner. It was funny because he was pointing out all the places where people crashed out – Buemi, di Grassi, Chandhok – and then the moment he realised he’d won the race.”

Squeezing additional features into an already packed work schedule was no mean feat but Shields somehow managed to juggle it all amidst the melee of the Argentina race weekend. “On Friday I got to drive the i8 around the track. It’s beautiful – very smooth, very powerful,” she says. “We also chatted with people like Alain Prost and Alex Tai, to get a better understanding of the whole weekend. There’s a lot that happens that you don’t see on race day coverage, lots of other activities that the drivers get up to.”

Shields says that the production values of the programme will impress even long-standing Formula E fans. “There are new graphics and music, so it has a different style to race day shows,” she says. “We shot it with a really nice camera, a Canon C300, which makes the footage look a lot more artistic than an existing Formula E audiences might be used to. It’s a brilliant programme. You get to know the city, the people, the tech and it finishes off with the racing. I’m really excited about it.”

Supercharged first airs at 2030 on Saturday 13 February on CNN, for those in the UK. It will then be available online at cnn.com/motorsport from Monday.