The selection of Donington Park as the headquarters of the new all-electric racing series Formula E’s teams was carefully considered. The facilities will be located in Donington’s West Paddock - close to “Motorsport Valley”, East Midlands Airport and the hub of their logistics partner DHL, thereby resulting in significant cost and emission savings.
The premises will comprise of a base for the 10 teams and Formula E offices, stores and workshops. There will be two teams sharing each building and each team has been allocated their units so whichever team got Leonardo di Caprio’s team Venturi GP as neighbours, must be counting themselves very lucky.
FINISHING TOUCHES
Managing Director of Donington Park Christopher Tate says: “The facilities for the 10 teams are progressing as scheduled and should be operational by May 1st 2014. Formula E is in the fortunate position where all sports-promoters like to be in; a league which people are clamouring to get into. At present, Donington Park has capacity for 10 teams and the series’ headquarters. Inclusion of more teams is certainly a future possibility but it would be a commercial matter for the Formula E promoter”.
Ten teams working in close proximity with each other might raise questions about protecting information disclosure and Intellectual Property, but the inaugural year of Formula E (2014) will be a level playing-field since all cars will have the same specification (Spark-Renault SRT_01E), therefore protecting “trade secrets” is unlikely to be considered a high priority at the moment. But from
2015 onwards, it becomes an open-championship with all teams allowed to develop their own technologies and designs to foster innovation and help accelerate development of road-relevant technologies, and it is hoped the IP issue would be addressed during the course of the first season.
RACING AHEAD
Running an independent race track is no easy feat but it is a challenge Mr Tate relishes. He was named Managing Director in November 2011 by the circuit owner Kevin Wheatcroft after Donington re-opened following the enforced closure in 2009-10 by the previous group. He adds: “Donington is busily booked all year round with various events; in addition to the staple motorsport events such as BTCC, WSBK, we also have track days, Download Festival, cycling races, half-marathons etc”.
The current team in charge at the race track feels strongly that they have significantly turned the fortunes of the track around since its re-opening and therefore rebuff any suggestions that securing the contract with Formula E is compensation for the failed bid to host Formula 1 at the Leicestershire-based track. Tate re-iterates that the team is a new team and they are very proud of their achievements. They were not involved with the F1 bid and have no interest in staging the 4-wheel global sport, and so would like to dispel the notion that hosting the Formula E headquarters is a consolation prize – this is not the case. It is instead testament to their hard work over the past 2-3 years to rebuild the reputation and commercial success of the track.