Target: Formula E in Cape Town for the next 20 years

After a highly successful inaugural Formula E Grand Prix in Cape Town at the weekend, Iain Banner, race promoter and head of the organising company, has plans for it to be part of the city scene for the next 20 years. 

The second leg of the ninth season of the ABB Formula E World Championship was won by Portugal’s Antonio Felix da Costa, who stormed from 11th on the grid to take his first victory for TAG Heuer Porsche.

It was a tight and dramatic affair around the Green Point precinct on what has been rated as the fastest track on the Formula E circuit in the ninth season of the sport. Championship leader Pascal Wehrlein had a horror first lap when he crashed into Sebastian Buemi.

Da Costa pulled off two unworldly moves to take the lead and win the race. 

“It was dramatic on the race track,” Banner told Cape Talk on Sunday. “It is the fastest circuit of the entire global series. It was a handful for the drivers. Ultimate risk and reward. The two overtakes that Felix da Costa had to win the race, they were 11 out of 10.

“The risk he took there, he could have lost it in a moment. He just needed to hit a little dirt, on a corner, he would have been gone.”

Da Costa was rewarded in this instance for doing the unthinkable in pulling off those two manoeuvres. For a purist, from a race perspective, they were dream-like. 

Banner, who heads up e-Movement, the group behind bringing Formula E to Cape Town, said the sport spoke his credo that sport should have a purpose.

“I am delighted. It was a big lift. It was a massive scale. People who watched themselves or on television would have seen it is a large area. It’s a complicated site. So many different owners, although it is a City of Cape Town precinct. I’m very proud of what we have done for SA.” 

For one South African, Kelvin van der Linde, it was over before it began after his ABT Cupra team pulled out of the race with rear-suspension issues. That may have been a disappointment for many of the sold-out crowd of 26,000, but they were treated to a belter of a race. 

Banner said they hope to sell more than 40,000 tickets next year. With the event on free-to-air eTV as well as SuperSport, the audience reach for SA and Cape Town was vast. It is, said Banner, set to be a fixture in Cape Town: “My intent is to have it here for the next 20 years.”