Saudi Arabia will host the inaugural season of the UIM E1 World Championship electric boat racing early in 2024, the Ministry of Sports announced Thursday.
The ministry said the two-day event will take place in Jeddah, the “Bride of the Red Sea,” affirming that this championship is the first and only accredited global event for electric boat racing.
The event will be held in partnership between the Ministry of Sports and the Saudi Water Sports and Diving Federation (SWSDF), which has exerted relentless efforts to develop marine sports in the Kingdom in line with the great ambitions of Saudi Vision 2030.
The UIM E1 World Championship aims to protect urban water and coastal areas.
“This partnership with E1 Series will help us accelerate the growth of marine sports in the Kingdom,” said Prince Sultan bin Fahd bin Salman, the President of the SWSDF.
The race, which will witness the participation of top competitors, “will serve as an ideal incentive for participation in marine sports, thanks to the sustainable technologies that E1 will develop,” the SWSDF president added.
The championship includes training sessions, qualifying races, and competitions that end in a knockout, where the participants will compete in several qualifiers to determine the finalists for the next stage, followed by the final to select the champion.
The championship will start in Rotterdam before moving to Jeddah for the opening round of the largest maritime event, the World Port Days, which will take place on September 1-3.
The participating teams will be given Race Bird boats and required to send two participants who will take turns driving for the duration of the race on the weekend.
Four teams have registered for the competition’s 10 participants so far.
Tennis star Rafael Nadal will participate in the Spanish team, while Formula 1 driver Sergio Michel "Checo" Pérez Mendoza will be with the Mexican team. The other two participants so far are Venice and Drogba Racing Teams.
