Twenty-two-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal is the newest team owner in E1’s electric racing league. The Spanish tennis player’s investment is meant to help fight the loss of marine ecosystems and biodiversity and bring attention to environmental preservation.
His investment supports E1’s Blue Action Program, which is designed to bring back marine environments around the cities that are part of the E1 race circuit. Nadal worked directly with E1’s chief scientist and marine ecologist Carlos Duarte to set the program’s sustainability initiatives and goals.
Nadal is not the only high-profile investor in the world’s first all-electric raceboat championship, Red Bull’s Mexican Formula One race car driver, Sergio Perez, is also financing an E1 team. All the teams will use identical electric foiling raceboats called RaceBirds. Capable of going 50 knots, they will be powered by electric outboard motors produced by Mercury Racing.
Nadal is one of the highest paid athletes in the world, with total career earnings of about $500 million. Gaining Nadal’s investment and his associated fame is a major achievement for the new electric raceboat league and its marine restoration efforts.
According to the E1 website, Team Nadal and Perez’s Team Mexico are set to start racing this year with more teams and a calendar of events to be revealed in the near future.
