Formula E is all set to take India by storm as Hyderabad will host India’s first-ever E Prix in February next year. In the past few years, Formula 1 has already created a loyal fanbase in India, it is not widespread as cricket or football in the country but has started to target a particular set of audience who loves speeding vehicles.
Being termed by many as the sport for an elite audience, F1 still has to do some groundwork to connect with more people in India. Amidst all this, Formula E is all set to cash in on the buzz as Hyderabad E-Prix will be the third round of the FIA-sanctioned World Championship with fully electric single-seater cars vrooming along the Hussain Sagar Lake at the top.
It is going to be the first major international racing event in India since F1 Indian GP in 2013 which was hosted at the Buddh International Circuit.
The excitement amongst the fans is quite huge as witnessing racing championships on television or tablets is nothing compared to witnessing the high-octane clash live from the stands and the Hyderabad E Prix has all the potential to open more doors for future racing events in the country.
In an exclusive conversation with News18, Formula E co-founder Alberto Longo talked about the upcoming mega-racing event in India and his plans to expand the racing market further in India.
Longo claims that Formula E has ‘an Indian DNA’ with biggies like Mahindra and Jaguar associated with them for a long time.
“We have a big fan base in India as we speak today. Without having a race, so obviously having the race will help massively towards that. I always like to say that we have a little bit of an Indian DNA. We have Mahindra as a partner from the beginning, from day one. We also now have a Jaguar, which is owned by Tata and obviously, TCS is involved it’s the title partner of Jaguar at the moment. I’ve been speaking with both of them they’re super excited. They wanna buy all the tickets available for the track," Alberto Longo told News18.
He also shared what to expect from the Hyderabad E Prix and revealed that apart from the race there are several things in store for the fans.
“So what I expect, one is to help us grow the brand formula in India, obviously, but more importantly to have these 40,000 to 50,000 people at the event. We’ll have a lot of fun. We’ll see a lot of overtaking, we’re a family event doesn’t matter your age, it doesn’t matter your gender, just go there and you’re gonna have fun, through our activation area for the fans. Obviously the race itself, music, I mean we are a full day of event not only a formula race," he said.
Mahindra also unveiled their car for the mega event in New Delhi a few days back, as Longo talked about the future cars which are going to disrupt the racing world in coming years.
“This is the Gen-2 car (on Mahendra’s Car). Which is the old version of what we are presenting in Mexico on the 14th of January, which is called the Gen 3. That car is the piece of the most advanced piece of Technology today. That there has never been a car built that way, you know? Yeah, on a sustainable point of view 320 kilometers an hour, Zero to 100 in, in less than two seconds. A car without a rear break and more importantly, a car which is capable of producing 40% of the energy that consumes during the race. While it’s racing so imagine you need a battery today in your day car that actually recharge – Automatically 40% of the total energy, which is unique."
“Hopefully, that technology will be transferred into the market, so every single one of you, whenever you buy an electric car, you will enjoy it," he added.
“Actually, our surprise in the last two three years is that we are attracting younger audiences than any other motorsport form. And more importantly, people who are not fans of Motorsport – 60% of our audience have never seen a race before that’s how impactful the Formula E races are. Coming to India, I think we’re gonna be helping Motorsport world because there is gonna be a lot of people who that are not used to seeing moto sport, but now we’re gonna watch those races. And that eventually is gonna help the whole ecosystem, not only Formula E," he said.
Longo further admitted that it took Formula E some time to come to India as he shared how a 20-minute talk with K. T. Rama Rao – Minister of IT in Telangana, solved several problems for him.
“Well, it took me a little bit of time because we didn’t find the right partner locally and the minute we found K. T. Rama Rao. He made it happen and it was a meeting of 20 minutes in between him and me and the whole situation was solved. He’s a visionary and he has a vision towards electromobility, towards green. He sees formula as part of all his vision, it was kind of very easy, it was love at first sight as they say so Hopefully, we will be here for many, many years," Longo concluded.
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