Formula E made a comeback to Sanya after a seven-year hiatus, and reconstructing a track that had remained dormant during the Covid-19 pandemic proved to be a formidable challenge. The FIA and Formula E began preparations months in advance, working to revive the circuit in line with the latest safety standards. Over 300 local personnel were enlisted to assist in the endeavor. Now, a behind-the-scenes video has been released, offering a glimpse into the extensive work required to ready the track for the race.
All the Work That Went Into Rebuilding the Sanya Street Circuit
Formula E shared a behind-the-scenes video from Sanya on Instagram with the caption: "Ever wondered what it takes to put together an E-Prix? Every detail matters and it requires a strong collaboration between @fiaformulae, the FIA and the local National Sporting Authority. Here's a look behind the scenes as the #SanyaEPrix."
Pablo Martino, Head of Championship for Formula E at the FIA, explained how the Sanya street circuit was made race-ready once again. He described the training of 332 marshals to equip them with the necessary knowledge and skills. He said, "Sanya CAMPF is the Chinese sporting authority for motorsports and they have been super proactive on putting this circuit back in place into the FIA Formula E World Championship. So they have done a huge job behind with all the local authorities in order to rebuild the track to put it up to the newest standards that were required from the FIA in terms of safety and they have been quite involved for all the safety homologation of the racetrack but also now with all the local marshals and with all the local sporting authorities that are working together with the FIA to make this even happen in the next couple of days."
Speaking ahead of the race as preparations continued, he added, "We plan for 332 marshals around the circuit including the track marshals, school narrowing, peak landing grade and also we have a firefighting medical recovery teams. All the people they're coming from different departments and some students join us as a young people training programme so this is a really big group for us and especially in Sanya we need to train all of them so we have started the training programme we have the young marshal training programme."
Women's Participation and Importance of Training in Motorsport Track Management
Pablo Martino also highlighted the strong participation of women in the programme. "You will find a lot of the lady marshals around the track because we are encouraging the young lady to join the marshals as a volunteer and we hope that China is a young country in the motorsports also with the young marshal volunteers in the motorsports," he said.
He added that they invited people with either a degree or prior knowledge of motorsport activities to take part in the programme. Explaining the significance of such training, he said, "We work together with the national sporting authority to do some trainings to the local people not only for the race itself but also to keep a legacy that can be extended into the national competitions. We plan to have the first electric cars event in end of these year and we want to have more motorsports fans to drive the electric cars to join the motorsports family in next future."
The Sanya E-Prix began with a free practice session on Friday. The Round 11 final starts at 3:05 pm local time.
