Marbella to host 'F1 of the sea' event next year attracting big names from sport and entertainment

Cívitas Puerto Banús is to be one of the nine world venues for the E1 competition: the world's first all-electric raceboat championship. The 'F1 of the seas' sporting event will be held on 1-2 June 2024.

It should be a huge boost for Marbella as the captains of the participating teams, among them tennis player Rafa Nadal, Formula 1 driver Sergio Pérez, football player Didier Drogba, American soccer player Tom Brady, DJ Steve Aoki and the singer Marc Anthony, between them have more than 1.1 billion followers on social media.

Marbella mayor Ángeles Muñoz, took part in the presentation of the Cívitas Puerto Banús Grand Prix at the Diputación, Malaga's provincial authority, on Thursday. She pointed out that getting this event "has not been an easy road" and valued "the joint commitment between the administrations and Cívitas Puerto Banús as an essential milestone for the balance to be tipped in favour of our candidacy".

"This race is going to position us as a unique destination," stressed the mayor, who also highlighted the values of sustainability and equality implicit in this event. "It is an exclusively electric-powered competition in which each team is made up of a male and a female," Muñoz said. She also recalled that the city "has been committed to tourism linked to sport for many years, as evidenced by events such as the Solheim Cup, the Ironman, the Davis Cup, the World Padel Tour and the Rhythmic Gymnastics Grand Prix".

The deputy regional minister of Tourism for the Junta de Andalucía, Víctor González, said during the presentation that this is a "pure 21st century" event, which is expected to reach 160 million people and have a media and economic impact on the destination of 15 and 26 million, respectively. The President of the Diputación, Francisco Salado, said that the Grand Prix "will become another boost to the tourism-sport configuration that we are so proud of on the Costa del Sol, expecting 20,000 visitors that weekend".

"Sharing the venue with destinations such as Monaco, Venice, Hong Kong, Geneva, Jeddah and Rotterdam, among others, gives us an idea of the magnitude of this sporting event which, thanks to institutional collaboration, such as the Marbella town hall, the Association of Municipalities of the Western Costa del Sol and the Andalusian regional government, together with the Diputación, together with our infrastructure, we guarantee that it will be a success," Salado said.

Cívitas Puerto Banús marina head Juan Núñez said that it has been "a complicated competition because there were other very powerful venues competing". "But with a serious and solid proposal we have achieved our objective and it is a source of pride that our destination is competing with other big names in the world," said Núñez.