The ninth season of the ABB Formula E World Championship has kicked off and this year, it’s coming to South Africa. Cape Town has been chosen as the host city for the fifth race, set to take place on Saturday, 25 February 2023. This global showcase of electric racing cars features some massive names and brands, including ex-Formula 1 drivers.
Formula E has established itself as the leading championship for electric cars. Built around a race calendar of 16 events in the best cities in the world, Cape Town is ready to make its debut in the 2023 season as the first sub-Saharan city to host an event.
As a leading manufacturer and supplier of automotive components and assemblies for various car brands – some of which have cars in the Formula E series – Formex Industries is excited about the future of electrification and mobility in South Africa. This year, a brand new generation of Formula E cars has been launched, with more power and futuristic looks to keep the racing exciting.
All of the races take place on street circuits, so the roads around the Cape Town Stadium, Mouille Point and Green Point will be cordoned off and converted into the track. An estimated 381 million people watch the Formula E World Championship every year, so this is a big opportunity for Cape Town and South Africa.
Formula E track in Cape Town
The racetrack will encircle the Cape Town Stadium, making use of Granger Bay Boulevard, Beach Road, Fritz Sonnenberg Road, Vlei Road and Helen Suzman Boulevard. It is expected to be one of the fastest tracks of the entire season with long straights but challenging corners that will test the Gen3 cars.
The track measures 2.8km and has 12 turns, with the start/finish line placed on Vlei Road. Qualifying for the race is set to start at 11:40am and the final race will begin at precisely 4:06pm. This gives the racers 56 minutes to jostle for the podium and wow the crowd with wheel-to-wheel racing.
Formula E looking forward to Cape Town
Formula E co-founder and chief championship officer, Alberto Longo, is looking forward to the Cape Town race. “We are excited to announce Cape Town as a new destination for our series in Season 9. Our local partners are working incredibly hard to bring an ABB FIA Formula E World Championship race to the city and we cannot wait to see the futuristic Gen3 cars competing against the iconic natural backdrop of Table Mountain,” he explains.
Tickets are now available on the Formula E website, ranging between R995 and R3450 each. With the ongoing prospect of the Kyalami Grand Prix Circuit being re-added to the Formula 1 calendar, this is a wonderful opportunity for South Africa to showcase itself as a racing destination that can meet international and FIA regulations.
This racing series is the pinnacle of electric racing and builds the foundation for technology and batteries that will later be used in consumer cars for the road. Some of the car manufacturers and customers of Formex that currently compete in the Formula E championship include Jaguar and Citroën. For more information about our components and products, please contact us today.
Formex Industries is a metal forming and assembly company that supplies a variety of complex products to the local automotive industry and the export market. The company is based in the Nelson Mandela Bay metropole, South Africa’s foremost region for automotive manufacturing and export.
Formex is a Level 2 B-BBEE supplier. The company is owned by Deneb Investments Limited – a subsidiary of Hosken Consolidated Investments Limited (HCI) – one of South Africa’s biggest true B-BBEE companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE).
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