With Spark Racing Technology aiming to deliver cars to teams for May 2014 and the impending need to centralise the hardware which teams would test and explore, a centralised home for the championship needed to be found.
During 2013 several locations were scouted out. These included the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, the former French Grand Prix venue of Magny Cours and Silverstone.
Thanks to a meeting over champagne and canapes at, of all places, the Houses of Parliament in London in July 2013, Donington Park in Leicestershire was where Formula E would find its operational base for the first years of its existence.
Donington’s former Managing Director, Christopher Tate, an experienced motorsport industry insider and one of the key architects of the Rockingham Speedway in the UK introduced himself to Alejandro Agag at the annual Motorsport Industry Association event within the UK’s corridors of power.
The talks developed and by late 2013 a deal was agreed upon. A central 44,000 sq-ft ‘village’ facility within the confines of the Donington facility, previously occupied by Norton motorcycles, was signed off in early January 2014. Remarkably within four months the project was mostly completed just in time for the delivery of the first Formula E cars to teams.
‘The idea was simple and efficient. It was to provide a base for teams so they could role out and hit the track with minimal fuss,” remembers Tate, who along with Formula E’s technical manager Carlos Nunes and Donington’s own Estate Manager Bob Commons were integral to the whole project.
The plans had the backing of the regional development fund, the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership, which had been a brainchild of the David Cameron led government business manifesto.
It was a deal which saw everyone gain something with Formula E achieving a central operational and logistical base, Donington adding to its programme of rejuvenation after a disastrous period overseen by nefarious custodians had forced it to be re-born.
‘I always remember that the local residents commented very favourably as to the professional look of the new Formula E facilities and that meant a lot to us,” recalled Tate (pictured below). ‘The entire thing was a monumental effort and honestly without Carlos (Nunes) it wouldn’t have happened. His work, diligence and expertise was totally crucial.”
An initiative of such scope was not without its tense moments and several came on the run up to the first test sessions held at the track in the summer of 2014.
‘The fire inspection we had from the county authorities was quite interesting as we proudly described how there was no fuel stored on site as all the cars were EV’s,’ smiles Tate.
‘Then the inspector turned his attentions to such things as thermal runaway scenarios (when a battery’s cells burn in to each other) and we had to shut up and take notice somewhat.’
The pride of the set-up was felt by Tate even more tangibly when 14,000 spectators turned out for the open public tests. It was a great success despite a hair-raising overload to the electrical system which saw the operation having to pause briefly and adapt.
‘It was a very dynamic and important part of Donington Park’s history throughout those years,” remembers Tate.
‘At the Autosport Awards at the end of 2014, Alejandro was quite rightly given the Pioneering and Innovation Award for setting up Formula E. In his acceptance speech he said that it would never have happened had it not been for Donington, McLaren and Williams. That was very generous of him and very pleasing for us to have been a good part of it all.’ Donington won its own award when it scooped the MIA’s Service to the Motorsport Industry award in January 2015, for having helped get FE up and running
