Cape Town E-Prix organizer "cautiously optimistic" despite omission from provisional 2024 calendar.

PHOTO CREDIT: ABB FIA Formula E World Championship

The FIA World Motor Sport Council [WMSC] on Tuesday published the provisional draft calendar for Season 10 of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with the notable omission of Cape Town. 

The local promoters of the Cape Town E-Prix - the City of Cape Town and E-Movement had agreed on a five-plus-five-year contract with a vision for a long-term future. 

And, whilst the inaugural race on the streets of the picturesque Green Point precinct was a tremendous success, the omission of the Cape Town race on the 2024 calendar might raise a few eyebrows, but rest assured that work is being done to secure the race's immediate future. 

Formula E Co-Founder & Chief Championship Officer, Alberto Longo has confirmed that advanced discussions are underway with the Cape Town promoters to finalise the season 10 calendar. 

"Formula E Operations (FEO) is in advanced discussions with Cape Town and many more cities who are keen to host a Formula E race. FEO expects to make more exciting calendar announcements following the next FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting, later this year," Longo said. 

Iain Banner, E-Movement Chairman, and Promoter said: “Having just completed 2023, we are busy working on the guarantees for 2024. We are cautiously optimistic about completing this process by the end of July”.

The inaugural Cape Town E-Prix saw two iconic moments: Firstly, Frenchman Sacha Fenestraz [Nissan] claiming his maiden pole position, and secondly, TAG HEUER Porsche's Antonio Felix da Costa, claiming victory after pulling off an audacious overtake on Jean-Eric Vergne to loud applause from the Cape Town spectators. 

Following the successful race, a study was conducted by Nielsen Sports, which examined the economic impact of the 2023 Cape Town E-Prix, and found that the race generated R1.084bn in economic activity and drew nearly R70m in media value globally, making the Formula E event one of the biggest economic impact and global media exposure events hosted in the city in the last 10 years.

Hyderabad, which had also hosted its first race in February earlier this year, has also not appeared on the provisional calendar. The all-electric championship has, however, announced a new addition for season 10, Formula E will race on the streets of Tokyo, Japan in March next year [see the provisional calendar below]. 

CAPE TOWN E-PRIX TO REMAIN ELECTRIFIED DESPITE SOUTH AFRICA'S CRIPPLING POWER CUTS

PHOTO CREDIT: ABB FIA Formula E World Championship.

AUTHOR: Junaid Samodien

South Africans have been grappling with endless power cuts, after state owned Eskom implementing continuous blackouts for more than 200 days last year, and ever day so far in 2023.These ongoing power cuts, have added unique challenges to the way businesses, and events are run in the country.

Since these power cuts became a way of life in South Africa, the various municipalities formulated plans and processes to ensure that large scaled events remain unaffected by these rolling power cuts (code named: "loadshedding"). With thousands of people frequenting a specific area comes a number of safety and security risks for all concerned. Therefore, power cuts are usually ruled out for those specified precincts or areas.

Following the announcement of the ABB FIA Formula E Cape Town E-Prix, many fans instantly brought up the power cut issues. However, it's now safe to say that these fans can have some peace of mind, in knowing that the country’s power crisis will not compromise the event in any way, as back-up plans are place.

Speaking at the 30-Day Out media briefing on Thursday morning, the City of Cape Town’s Mayco Member for Safety and Security, J.P Smith, said: “With major events like this we do occasionally exempt precincts from load shedding, and we have been working with Formula E about this – but Formula E has made their own arrangement in this regard, while we are responsible for other logistics (such as safety and security) which are a massive amount of work behind the scenes.” 

Iain Banner, chairperson of e-Movement, has been working closely with the City of Cape Town’s energy experts to ensure that they have a number of plans in place should the power cuts affect the inaugural event scheduled to take place on 25 February 2023.  

Banner explains: “I’ve been working closely with the city’s Energy experts Kadri Nassiep and Michael Schmidt and we have structured a primary power plan for the majority of the precinct. We don’t only have to charge cars, we need to power the entire structure. We have a guaranteed supply up to Stage 6, but there is always a secondary system. This includes generators that run on bio-fuel that will ensure that we can provide the 2MW of instant power demand. With the help of our engineers and the Cape Town stadium team, on Tuesday (this week), we have also secured power from the Cape Town Stadium.” 

“We cannot afford for cars not to run, and with the City’s help and our two back-up plans we will ensure that they do,” he concluded.

Construction work complete, as Cape Town prepares for inaugural E-Prix.

PHOTO CREDIT: ABB FIA Formula E

AUTHOR: Franco Theron

CO-AUTHOR: Junaid Samodien

South Africa will soon host the all-electric ABB FIA Formula E World Championship, with the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix set to take place on 25 February 2023. 

Hosting an international event comes with a number of strict requirements, but when it comes to motorsport or a Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) sanctioned event there are a lot more requirements, or items to check off your list, including circuit design, facility upgrades (to cater to the championship), and more. 

Recently, the City of Cape Town undertook an extensive road widening and resurfacing project around the Green Point Precinct (the proposed circuit), which included the installation of removable kerbs, and the creation of "the fastest corner on the current Formula E calendar (turn 12)".

We visited the Green Point area to take a detailed look at the Cape Town E-Prix circuit to record and capture all the changes, and upgrades made before the event (images available below).

Mexico City E-Prix
PHOTO CREDIT: ABB FIA Formula E

Avalanche Andretti Formula E team driver Jake Dennis claimed victory at the Mexico City E-Prix last weekend in a dominant fashion, the championship will then head to Saudi Arabia and India, before it heads to the most southern point of the Southern hemisphere (Cape Town).

With just over a month to the Cape Town E-Prix, let's take a closer look at the circuit. The 12-turn, 2.94km circuit will be fast-flowing and an incredibly competitive circuit. It will most surely test the higher top speeds of the new Gen3 Formula E race cars. A total of 11 teams and 22 drivers will race around this circuit.

MAP SUPPLIED BY: e-Movement/Cape Town ePrix.

The circuit will start on Vlei road, which has been resurfaced with a red oxide pigment surface, with all construction work done by, Amandla Construction. This has replaced the previous bricked surface, which included several speedbumps. The same red oxide pigment surface has been placed within the pitlane, which will extend from turn 11 (Vlei road), behind the Green Point hospitality village, and rejoining again after turn 3.

Left - The bricked surface at turn 11.
Right - Resurfaced red oxide tarmac at turn 11
PHOTO CREDIT: Slipstream SA and DeHoopsteenwerwe

On our circuit inspection last month, we noticed that the tarmac from turn 11 to turn 1, including the full length of the pitlane was red, and quite grippy. We asked the Cape Town ePrix event organisers, to which they replied: "the red is actually a very simple thing. We wanted to maintain the original colour scheme of the ground in that area. So the red was kept red because that's how it looked before the upgrades were done."

Let's continue with the circuit layout, shall we... From Vlei road, all competitors will turn left onto Helen Suzman Boulevard. The turns 2, 3 and turns 4, 5, 6 have also been resurfaced and widened. Turn 7 will see another left-hand turn, where competitors will turn onto the Beach road, which will take them around two more left-hand sweeping turns before turn 10, which will take teams onto Vlei road once again. Drivers will then keep there foot down racing towards the tight left-hander of turn 11 before quickly changing direction to the very quick turn 12, and across the line.

NOTE: The Cape Town E-Prix circuit fly over contains the initial circuit concept, and not the FIA approved layout. However, you can get the concept and idea of the circuit by watching the video.

CREDIT: e-Movement/Cape Town ePrix organisers.

While taking place relatively early in the 16-round championship, which is set to finish on 30 July (London), the Cape Town E-Prix is set to not only be one of the fastest races, but also one of the most beautiful. With Table Mountain and the Cape Town soccer stadium as a backdrop, the summery weather of the of this Atlantic Ocean city will play a perfect host to the championship.

Would you like to attend this landmark event? Well! Limited tickets are still available for the inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, which start from R995 to R3 450. Get your tickets right now to avoid disappointment - here 

                             A look around the Cape Town ePrix circuit with it's surface and corner upgrades.

CREDIT: Junaid Samodien/Franco Theron