Enlarge / Formula E has raced in Berlin since 2015.
Formula E is the latest sporting series to announce a return to real-world action. On Wednesday morning, the electric motorsport series revealed it will close out its season with a stretch of six races over nine days, all held in Berlin. There will actually be three separate events; each one a two-day double-header on August 5-6, August 8-9 and August 12-13. Each double-header will use different track configurations at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport, which has previously seen some exciting races from Formula E.
The motorsport’s season actually got underway in November 2019 with a two-day double-race event in Saudi Arabia. But it only managed to run five of the planned 14 races of season six before COVID-19 did its thing and we all went into lockdown. The sport then went virtual, moving the action online with rFactor 2 standing in for the real thing—something that didn’t always go entirely smoothly.
There had been hopes that the US and UK would get their acts together enough to hold the final planned races in July, but those hopes have been dashed. So instead, Berlin will see out the season, which will instead run to 11 races in total. But fans in Berlin won’t be able to see the action in person; like recent racing resumptions by NASCAR and IndyCar (and soon, Formula 1), the races will be closed to spectators.
Formula E has worked with the same people who got the German Bundesliga football championship back in play to come up with protocols to allow the racing to resume with as little infection risk to the participants as possible. Instead of 5,000 workers at the events, the site will operate with a slimmed down 1,000. Everyone will have to quarantine for two weeks in the lead up to the first race on August 5, and there will be regular SARS-CoV-2 testing as well as temperature checks. And face masks and social distancing will be the order of the day.
In a statement sent to Ars. Jamie Reigle, CEO of Formula E, said:
We’re heading to Berlin Tempelhof, a venue that our teams, drivers and fans love, to stage a nine-day festival of racing with three back-to-back double-headers. The festival will feature three track layouts, presenting a new challenge and creating the conditions for an unpredictable and drama-filled climax to our season. The team at Formula E has been working incredibly hard over the past weeks to enable us to go racing again in Berlin. I’d like to thank the FIA, our manufacturers, teams and partners for their continued support, the city of Berlin for their cooperation and flexibility and our fans for their patience.
The exact times of each race, as well as the track configurations, will be released closer to the event dates.
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