There he was: Leonardo DiCaprio.
Sure, he might have been wearing a pulled-down baseball cap and a pair of wrap-around sunglasses, but that was him alright – chatting away to one of the drivers at the back of the garage, eight-foot bodyguard never too far away. Orlando Bloom was knocking about somewhere too, as were several thousand other (considerably less-famous) people.
I’d only been in Marrakesh a matter of hours by this stage, but the sense that Formula E – the world’s first fully-electric international single-seater street racing series – has quickly become a pretty big deal was already becoming clear.
Large stretches of the Moulay El Hassan racetrack run alongside some of the Morrocan city’s centuries-old fortified walls. The peaks of the Atlas mountains – blanketed in snow at this time of year – were visible from most parts of the circuit. Some might insist there are more picturesque venues in the world of motorsport than this, but for me – enjoying my first taste of an E-Prix – this was pretty impressive.
Following an opening weekend double-header in Hong Kong in December, Marrakesh was to play host to round three of the fourth ABB FIA Formula E Championship. It was the second time the city has been the venue for such an event, with its first E-Prix taking place in November 2016.
The championship has made huge steps in its short lifetime, many of which have taken place in the 14 months between the two races in Marrakesh. James Barclay, team director for Panasonic Jaguar Racing, knows this as well as anyone.
“It’s developing really quickly,” he told me shortly after watching qualifying in the team’s garage. “Last year was our first as a team and we had our own set of challenges to help us get up to speed.
“The session we’ve just seen now, four or five tenths of a second is separating seven drivers. It’s getting that close.”
Ahead of the current season, the Jaguar team made extensive changes to their I-TYPE 2 with over 200 new parts added to it.
“That’s the kind of level the championship is getting to: you have to make big changes and big steps forward,” Barclay adds.
Undoubtedly, the technology within Formula E is advancing at an incredible rate. The cars’ top speeds have significantly increased in the little over three seasons the championship has existed, and season five will see every driver complete races in a single car (they currently switch to a second car during each race).
While Barclay admits that this is exciting from a competitive racing perspective, he’s also keen to stress that there’s a much bigger picture to be looked at.
“Fundamentally, the reason we’re here is to promote battery electric vehicles,” he explains. “It’s a fantastic global platform to promote the benefits of this technology. From a sustainability point of view and, secondly, communicating to the rest of the world that electric cars are part of our future.”
This is particularly significant for Jaguar, who will launch the Jaguar I-PACE – their first all-electric road car – later this year, and next season will see the launch of the Jaguar I-PACE eTROPHY – the world’s first all-electric production car support series.
“There’s a fantastic technology transfer which we call Race to Innovate,” Barclay continues. “It’s about taking our technology and our learnings from motor racing in Formula E and applying that to make our road cars of the future fantastic for our consumers.”
It’s also little wonder that the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Orlando Bloom are happy to have their faces associated with it (even if they are sometimes partially hidden behind expensive sunglasses). As Bloom said while speaking to JOE in Marrakesh, its environmentally-friendly approach makes watching Formula E racing “guilt-free”.
Despite the willingness of Hollywood A-listers and some of the world’s most recognisable car manufacturers to connect themselves with Formula E in some way, its rising viewing figures are the most telling sign that the championship is very much here to stay. Partly down to its innovative use of social media and features such as FANBOOST – which allows fans to vote for their favourite driver and reward them a surge of power – Formula E is attracting more and more followers. TV audience figures continue to increase, as do attendances at each race. Many attract in excess of 20,000 with last season’s finale in Montreal drawing over 45,000.
Already, although not even four years old, it’s becoming impossible to ignore Formula E.
For a full report of the Marrakesh E-Prix, click here.
