At Punta del Este in December 2014, Formula E was already in big trouble and the money had completely run dry, including major investor Enrique Banuelos’ considerable outlay.
It was a pivotal weekend in the series’ history. As Sebastien Buemi sprayed the champagne and Agag escorted supermodel Valeria Mazza on the sun dappled grid, dark clouds gathered.
‘All of the investors didn’t want to put more money in, and Enrique at the time didn’t have money to put in,’ recalls Agag.
‘Then Enrique fired me in the morning on the Sunday after Punta!
‘We had received two offers, while we were in Uruguay, from two people who wanted to come in with some capital. So, we were not dead.’
There were plenty of people who wanted to put money into Formula E. But Banuelos didn’t want to take them in, because if he did, it would mean he would lose control.
‘I said to Enrique, listen, you can fire me, you now have more than 54 percent of the company, so you can fire me if you want, and of course he fired me at first,’ says Agag.
‘But I said: ‘if you fire me, and I go out there to the paddock and say I’m not here anymore, you can expect half of the teams or all of the teams will leave, all the sponsors will also leave, and there will be no championship. That’s if you fire me.
‘He said ‘hmmm, OK, I’m not going to fire you, but I’m going to take all the executive powers from you.’
Instead, Banuelos deployed an associate to govern the offices in Hammersmith while Agag clung to the CEO role. The situation was kept discreet, and Agag’s mandate as CEO was clear. Close a transaction to bring a saviour and investor in.
‘I got back from Punta, I moved out of my office and this guy comes into my office but after two days, he calls Enrique and says ‘you better get Alejandro back here now. There is no money in the bank, I don’t want to sign any documents, this company is going bankrupt,’ remembers Agag.
For three days Agag was out with very few of his staff knowing the increasing uncertainty and drama that was unfolding.
‘They called me and said ‘OK, we’re sorry, please get back, try to fix this thing. Then I did the deal with Liberty!’
The Buenos Aires EPrix was only completed due to the good faith of key suppliers to the championship, and then the next race arrived. Miami.
‘I had to send the cars to Miami with my own money. I paid DHL, I remember, it was all my savings, I didn’t tell my wife! Then we signed with Liberty just before Miami,’ recalls Agag.
Miami Nice!
The Liberty-Discovery money came in at the end of February but there was a condition. If anything were to go wrong between the signing of the deal and over the following 30 days then they could ask for the money back.
‘50 million came in, and 25 million went out to pay suppliers immediately,’ admits Agag.
‘I had personally guaranteed everything that month, so if anything went wrong that month, they’d take my house, the lot.’
‘I woke up the day of the Miami race, the first one that the Liberty and Discovery people were coming to ever, and the track was not ready, there were many issues! That was within the month of them being able to call back the money.
Agag was staying in a house of a friend near Biscayne Bay and journeying to the race by speedboat.
At seven o’clock on the morning of the most important race in Formula E’s short history, he reached for his phone. There were 25 missed calls.
‘We have no track’ read one, ‘we may have to cancel the race,’ said another!
‘So, I rush to the speedboat, tell the guy with the speedboat to go, go, go. Then the speedboat police stop us, and fines us. So in the middle of the bay, I have no track, and I have this American boat policeman, taking his time fining the driver. I remember thinking, ‘I just don’t believe this is happening to me.’
Agag got off the boat to see Michael Andretti (Andretti were operational partners) helping to put walls in place.
‘The guys from Liberty and Discovery arrive, so we go to a terrace that and are having a coffee and chatting and so on,’ says Agag.
‘When are the cars out? They ask. ‘Oh, we’re just fixing some things in the schedule, it’s soon, no issues.’
‘I remember there was a cut-off time, 11am I think, where if we didn’t go out, we had to then postpone. And at 10.55, I can hear a car.
‘That was really close. I would have been ruined basically.’
The issues were resolved but only just. It was only then that the stability came and Formula E had a chance of thriving.
Excerpts taken from Formula E: Racing for the Future’ published by Evro Publishing, 2021
