The Punta del Este motor racing circuit meets all the requirements established by Formula E, according to the race organizers. Its layout is the most competitive of all those in the championship, which began this year. "It's an impressive track. It's going to be one of the best tracks we'll have in the championship. We have a great difficulty finding a circuit within a city. Here we have had every opportunity in the world. It's not a street circuit. It's a racing circuit within a city," said Alberto Longo, director of Formula E.
Longo and other members of the Formula E championship board arrived in the last few hours to inspect the works and hold work meetings with their local partners. The test will take place on December 13.
"In most cities, we're encountering the problem of having ninety-degree curves. Here, there are much wider curves that will allow us to overtake. There are four or five clear overtaking spots. That's extremely important for this race," he added.
Longo said that the interaction of the event with social networks far exceeded the previous expectations that the organizers had.
“On traditional television alone, we're reaching around 25 million viewers globally. These are figures we didn't expect for the first championship using a new technology. On social media, we have the case of a Chinese website that has had more than 250 million interactions. In total, we've reached more than a billion social media interactions. We're the largest digital championship in the world,” Longo emphasized.
The executive highlighted the way the public and private systems interact in this case. "This is wonderful. We've been impressed by the work being done and the collaboration provided by both the Maldonado Municipality and the Punta del Este Mayor's Office," he said.
Longo, a director of the competition, arrived at the resort accompanied by the press officer of Formula E, the Italian Luca Colajanni, former spokesman for the Ferrari brand.
“Our local partner, Fernando Cáceres with Sportlink, is doing a wonderful job,” said Longo. The executive emphasized that Punta del Este and Buenos Aires were the only two cities on the continent chosen to host the event.
“Punta del Este is the Monte Carlo of the Americas. There's no more glamorous city in all of the Americas. Our target is to reach places like Monte Carlo. And Punta del Este is a city that has that profile,” Longo said.
Di Caprio.
There is a noticeable expectation in Punta del Este for the presence in the resort of some of the visible faces of Formula E.
Among them is actor Leonardo DiCaprio, owner of one of the racing teams. "His presence is not confirmed. But he owns one of the teams, so we can expect his visit," Longo said.
The presence of English magnate Richard Branson, owner of another team, is also not ruled out. “There are very important and highly-mediated people participating in our championship. If we focus on the sporting aspect, the key thing is that there are people like Alain Prost, who has a team where one of his sons races. Bruno Senna is racing. Also Nelsinho Piquet,” he added.
SOURCE: elpais.com.uy
