A pioneering zero-emissions motorsport race could take place in the capital under plans being considered by its organisers.
The E1 series, the world’s first all-electric race boat championship, drew thousands of spectators to the shores of Marbella’s Puerto Banús this weekend, after previous rounds in Jeddah and Venice.
Pilots raced on specially-designed and sustainable high-speed crafts, in teams owned by A-listers, such as Will Smith’s Westbrook Racing, Rafael Nadal’s Team Rafa, and Dider Drogba’s Team Drogba.
Speaking to the Standard from the championship’s third round, E1 series co-founder Rodi Basso said he wanted the event to take place in the world’s most “amazing places”.
“I would love to be in London, we're discussing London. Yeah, London would be amazing,” he said.
“I would love to be in Tokyo. We will be in Miami. We will be in Brazil. We are still discussing where to go: It could be Rio, it could be Brasilia on the lake or Sao Paulo.
“After Jeddah, we had an incredible expression of interest from all over the world, for teams, for cities, for sponsorship, from media as well.”
London already hosts an annual Formula E car-racing event at the ExCeL centre, with E1 Series organisers floating the possibility of a similar high-speed race on the Thames.
In contrast to traditional boat racing, the E1 crafts - called RaceBirds - have zero emissions, making them more sustainable to use on lakes and rivers.
“We speak sustainability threefolds compared to anyone else,” said Mr Basso. “We have zero emissions because it is electric.
“But we also do not generate waves. This is huge because in cities like Venice, the problem is waves [erosion], it is not anything else.
“And the other one is the silence, of course, and the silence has a huge impact on sea life.”
This means the event avoids disturbances to the aquatic life in the area, who may not be able to communicate when it is too loud, explained E1 chief scientist, Professor Carlos Duarte.
“Typically we don't think about it [but] noise has a pervasive impact on marine life,” he said.
“When you have the ‘cocktail party effect’, and you’re in a loud environment we [humans] raise our voices to be heard, if the noise is too high, we wouldn’t give up.
“But in the ocean, much of marine has given up trying to communicate, such as whales being silent.
“We made an impact study where we tried to understand how much the footprint of the race in the environment is reduced compared to a similarly powered combustion engine.
“And when we quantified the emission of noise to the air, it was reduced 50 times compared to a similar boat but with a combustion engine.”
Mr Basso said there had been interest from cities across the world not just in the race, but in the technology of the RaceBirds too.
“That is something that is really triggering the interest of so many stakeholders, governments, there is a big movement in improving navigation.
“I am a strong believer that we should encourage water mobility much more because of congestion - and London is trying, the average speed is 7mph in the city.”
Extreme E rally driver and E1 Series pilot Catie Munnings, who is part of Team Brazil, also backed the race coming to London.
“That would be really cool, actually,” she said.
“I think you could do like a city kind of race, I hope so, in the future, if you can get an estuary or a river that's wide enough.”
The 26-year-old rally driver, who grew up in Kent, said she would encourage other Brits to follow in her footsteps and take up the sport.
“If you asked me four years ago if I'd be racing electric cars, I would’ve said, ‘No, you know, it doesn't exist’ and here I am racing electric boats,” she said.
“I know it sounds really cheesy, but I think that your potential is so much more than you think it is in different disciplines as well.
“I think racing is racing, and whether you're on land or on water or in other sports. It's the same if you have that mindset and that mentality of how to look for a competitive edge.
“It's quite translatable as soon as you get the basics of enough sport.”
Further events in the Championships are set to be held in Monaco, Rotterdam, Geneva, and Hong Kong.
