‘Formula E grand prix is Cape Town’s biggest event since 2010 World Cup’

Cape Town’s inaugural Formula E race will be the city’s biggest event since the 2010 Fifa World Cup, organisers said Thursday, also promising that plans were in place to deal with all stages of load-shedding.

City councillor JP Smith estimated the 2.8km road race around Cape Town Stadium on February 25, and the other events around it, would swell the local economy by R2bn, directly and indirectly.

They are expecting 10,000 spectators from abroad, he added. 

Iain Banner, chair of e-Movement, the organising company, told a press conference via video platform on Thursday, they had worked fast to get everything in place since securing the bid late last year. 

The track was completed “in record time” in eight months, a third of the two years that had been predicted, he said. The roads had been resurfaced and widened. 

A total of 2,100 concrete barriers measuring 7.86km in total were constructed as well as fencing, which required 487 tonnes of steel. 

“Those teams had to work through Christmas, New Year, double shifts,” said Banner, adding that 70% of the workers at the fencing contractor had been previously unemployed. 

They also built five bridges across the track, 17,000 of the 24,000 spectator seats and 11 garages for the racing teams that include Jaguar, Maserati, McLaren, Porsche and Nissan. 

Banner pointed out that the new Gen3 cars that started the season in Mexico City earlier this month accelerated quicker than their F1 counterparts going from zero to 200 kmph. 

The top speed of 322 kmph was not far off the 350 kmph of F1. 

“The reality is FE cars could go faster, but they’re regulated otherwise they’d burn up too much battery power.

“This is the biggest event to happen in this precinct since staging the 2010 Fifa World Cup,” he said. “It gets locked down completely, we have 16km of perimeter fencing, in addition to our track security, to control the environment and we have a transport plan with buses.”

Uber had joined as a partner to help with public transport.

Smith said the race precinct would be exempt from load-shedding up to stage six. “We do occasionally exempt precincts. It’s too risky to have a major event in the dark where a disastrous security situation can occur.”

Banner added there was a secondary system that included generators running on biofuel. 

In future they would use new-generation hydrogen vegetable oil, which had the same molecular structure as diesel, for the traditionally fuel-powered generators. 

Tickets start at R356 for general admission, which offers spectators access to the two fan villages and present views through the fence. A family-of-four special was going for R3,600 with seated tickets ranging from R995 to R2,195. 

Apart from the race, which is a two-day event with shakedowns and hot laps on February 24, they are also staging the African Green Economy Summit at Century City Conference Centre aimed at connecting global capital with opportunities in Africa. 

Another initiative is Formula Student Africa, which would involve at least six local universities building electric cars for assessment in 2024. 

“It’s about going green,” said Banner.