Photo: FRIC
India’s first FIA-graded street circuit in Hyderabad will hold Formula Regional and Formula 4 races later this year, and the city has now confirmed its intent to host Formula E.
The 2.37km track being used by FRegional Indian Championship and Indian Fromula 4 is located on the southern shore of the Hussain Sagar lake, famous for a large Buddha statue that stands in the waters’ middle, was designed with FE in mind.
The starts with a long pit straight that goes to a very tight hairpin which will be an ample opportunity for lifting and coasting as well as regenerative braking in FE’s Gen3 cars, which will be introduced later this year for the 2022-23 season.
The straight after the hairpin briefly runs right next to the water before kinking left and heading towards a fast switchback chicane. A long curve then takes drivers underneath the flyover and towards the turn four hairpin – faster than the first – with the straight that follows running parallel to the flyover above and leading to a similar hairpin for turn five.
A short straight after that splits off to the left for the pitlane entry, before the final corners which are a tight left-hander that is almost a hairpin, then a narrow right, a left and then a faster and more open left-hander onto the pit straight.
Formula Scout was responsible for bringing the Hyderabad project to the attention of FE’s chairman Alejandro Agag last summer, and since then the Mumbai Falcons company behind India’s first FIA-certified single-seater series and the new circuit had confirmed to Formula Scout its interest in getting the city to host FE in the years beyond.
Additional infrastructure is needed to homologate a track for FE use, with a ‘Grade 3E’ given by the FIA once an Grade 3-level track can prove it can harbour the charging generators needed and has extra safety foundations for running electric cars.
While FRIC’s circuit has not been announced as the circuit of choice for hosting FE, the Indian state of Telangana State has signed a Letter of Intent to bring FE to put forward its capital Hyderabad as a candidate city for the championship and so FE will work with the city and state officials to evaluate whether it is suitable to host the world championship. This will most likely include attending the FRIC and F4 races in the city this December.
Renewable energy company Greenko, based in Hyderabad, has already partnered with the bid to bring FE to India and there are “more than 20 cities are currently vying to be part of [FE] season nine”.