Bid for Swiss Formula E race fails

Lugano will not join Formula E's season two calendar but Switzerland is in position to host a round of the all-electric championship in 2016-'17.

Organizing body Swiss ePrix Lugano was pushing for a May 7 round in the southern lakeside city and had a deadline to raise the required 10 million euros extended to the end of November. It was thought progress had been made on this front, and the event was also considered as a direct replacement for the Berlin Tempelhof race, but Formula E CEO Alejandro Agag said the bid was dead.

"There has been an official communication," he confirmed. "We needed to do quite a lot of work on the streets, so that meant it had to go through a public consultation. It slowed down things so much we couldn't meet the deadline, it was just a bureaucratic process."

Agag revealed the northern city of Zurich is now pushing to host a round in season three, but the intentions of the Lugano organisers are unknown.

Motor racing had been banned in Switzerland since the 1955 Le Mans disaster in which a number of spectators were killed, until a relaxation in its law earlier this year.

Formula E held a demonstration run in Geneva with Swiss driver Simona de Silvestro and Agag said he was extremely confident the championship would add the country to its season three calendar.

"We really want to race in Switzerland and now we have more time," he added. "We will get it. I'm convinced we will – the council changed the law so that Formula E could race. That's pretty big."

Originally on Autosport.com