Nother CarGuy

We’ve become accustomed by now to watching races broadcast from the Middle East. World-class racing series like F1 and MotoGP regularly hold events in Gulf emirates like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and Bahrain. But the latest announcement is a little different. The organizers of the FIA Formula E Championship have announced that, starting next season, the electric racing series will compete on the streets of Riyadh. The first event is set to kick off the start of next season, when an entirely new generation of single-seat EVs will race through the Ad Diriyah district in the Saudi Arabian capital. But it won’t be a flash in the pan, as the initial deal has been penned for a full ten years. The announcement follows just a few months after the Race of Champions was held in the same city’s King Fahd International Stadium. That marked the first international-level motorsport competition in the oil-rich country, which is evidently shifting its focus towards the future of motorized transportat...

The FIA Formula E Championship has released its full list of participating manufacturers for next season. And as expected, it confirms that both Porsche and Mercedes will join the electric series. Both the German automakers announced their intent to enter the championship last July. And not without cost: Porsche’s entry comes at the expense of its Le Mans prototype program, while Mercedes is shutting down its DTM effort (but not its F1 team) to join the electric grid. But it wasn’t until now that their spots in the paddock were officially confirmed. “If you had said to me then that we would be in double figures in terms of recognisable names in the world of motorsport, biggest road car manufacturers and automotive brands – I would have said you were crazy,” said series chief Alejandro Agag. “But this is the reality now.” As the latest manufacturers to join the series, the two companies from Stuttgart will go up against their mutual rivals Audi and BMW (which is stepping up wit...