E1 electric speedboat racing championships come to Africa in Luanda, Angola

September 16, 2026 Jeff Butler 0 Comments E1, E1 - 2026

The E1 Electric Speedboat Racing Championships came to Africa for the 5th race of their third season with a high profile weekend session in Luanda, Angola. Known for its deep maritime heritage, natural resources and prime coastal position, Luanda stands as one of Africa’s key maritime gateways.

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The arrival of E1 not only demonstrates Angola’s rising profile on the world sporting stage, but also allows it to show off its ongoing investment in sustainable development. As part of E1’s sustainability efforts, E1 is partnering with the Otchiva Project, an Angolan non governmental organization dedicated to restoring the country’s mangrove ecosystems.

Ahead of the race weekend, some of E1’s pilots joined a reforestation project at the Ilha de Mussulo, supporting local efforts to protect the coastline which acts as a natural buffer to prevent coastal erosion to protect communities and wildlife populations.

E1 2026 Race 1: Jedda E1 2026 Race 2: Lake Como
E1 2026 Race 3: Dubrovnik E1 2026 Race 4: Monaco

On Saturday, however all eyes turned to the Luanda Yacht Club, where the 7 metre hydrofoiling RaceBird speedboats with their 150kW (200 hp) electric outboards were ready to turn some heads.

The E1 Championships are unique in sports with female and male pilots from the teams going head to head in cross-sex match-ups. Racing on the water in iconic cities around the world including Jeddah, Monaco, Lake Como and Miami, teams are owned by some of the biggest names on the planet: LeBron James, Will Smith, Marc Anthony and Steve Aoki from the world of entertainment, Rafael Nadal, Tom Brady, Virat Kohli, Thibaut Courtois, Kyle Kuzma and Didier Drogba from the world of sport.

Click for a full overview of the Series at the bottom of this page.

Coming into the race weekend, the two top teams, Team Brady and Westbrook Racing (owned by Will Smith) were locked in a tight battle for the season championship title with only 9 points separating them: 119 – 110.

Sitting behind in a battle of their own were three teams: AlUla Racing (championed by LeBron James) with 75 points, Team Aoki with 71 and Team Drogba Global Africa at 64 points. Team Drogba was coming off its first victory ever, July 18 at Monaco.

Tom Brady, Will Smith teams battle for top spot

In Saturday’s qualifying races, four-time Jamaican Motor Sports Athlete of the Year and Team Aoki pilot Sara Misir was at the wheel of the team’s RaceBird for the decisive qualifying run, edging ahead of Drogba.

That gave Aoki not only the starting pole position for Saturday but also three Championship points to narrow the gap with Drogba to just one point. Westbrook also moved within eight of Team Brady.

That was as close as Westbrook was going to get to Brady on this weekend, though. During Sunday’s Group Stage they had a technical problem in their first race and despite borrowing a boat from Team AlUla, they got pipped by just under a half a second by Catie Munnings of Sierra Racing Club. By the end of the day they were ninth out ten teams and lost touch on the Championship lead.

Leaders fall from grace

Some of the other season leaders had similar bad luck in missing the Finals and being delegated to the Place Race. There, AlUla – third in the season standings – could only manage seventh on this day. Team Drogba came in eighth and Team Miami finished last, behind Westbrook.

The teams that qualified for the finals and the big points for the day were Brady, Monaco, Team Rafa (owned by Rafael Nadal), Sierra and Team Blue Rising (owned by Indian cricketing legend Virat Kohli).

In Final 1, Mashael Alobaidan took the lead off the start but was handed a long lap penalty for changing her lane on the run to the first turn. That promoted Sara Misir for Aoki Racing into the lead but the Brady boat was flying.

The Championship leaders took their long lap early which gave them clean water, allowing Sam Coleman to come through to take the victory and give Brady pilot Emma Kimiläinen pole position for Final 2.

Winner by 1.4 seconds

At the start of Final 2, Aoki and Team Blue Rising tripped over each other, with Dani Clos (Aoki) and John Peeters (Blue Rising) missing one of the course marks and receiving long lap penalties they could not overcome.

It seemed as though Kimiläinen was controlling the race for Brady but in the closing stages it became clear that Team Monaco were closing in.

Heading into the final corner Team Brady had to still complete their long lap, allowing Oban Duncan in the Team Monaco E1 RaceBird to put the pressure on at the line. Kimiläinen held on to take victory by just 1.4 seconds and, despite finishing on the podium in every race so far this season, it was the first time that Brady took victory this season. Oban Duncan’s performance saw her awarded PIF Pilot of the Day.

Team Brady leave Angola with a 40 point advantage over Westbrook heading into the season finale double-header set for Miami as they look to win the UIM E1 World Championship presented by PIF for the third year in a row.

Jamie Copas, Chief Executive Officer, E1, said: “Bringing the Championship to Luanda and Southern Africa for the first time marks an important milestone for E1. The welcome we have received, the atmosphere around the event and the racing we have seen on the water demonstrate why Angola is such an exciting addition to our global calendar.

“The Championship fight now heads to Miami for the finale and our first-ever Championship double-header”.

E1 Series website E1 YouTube Channel

2026 E1 Championship Standings
After Race 5: Luanda

PLC	TEAM	OWNER	FEMALE	MALE	PTS
1	Team Brady	Tom Brady	Emma Kimiläinen	Sam Coleman	157
2	Westbrook Racing	Will Smith	Sara Price	Lucas Ordóñez	117
3	Aoki Racing Team	Steve Aoki	Sara Misir	Dani Clos	86
4	Team AlUla	Championed by LeBron James	Nerea Martí	Rusty Wyatt	84
5	Team Blue Rising	Virat Kohli	Mashael AlObaidan	John Peeters	79
6	Team Monaco		Oban Duncan	Maxime Nocher	74
7	Team Drogba Global Africa	Didier Drogba	Tara Pacheco	Micah Wilkinson	68
8	Sierra Racing Club	Thibaut Courtois and Kyle Kuzma	Catie Munnings	Erik Stark	65
9	Team Rafa	Rafael Nadal	Cris Lazarraga	Tom Chiappe	62
10	Sports.com Predict Team Powered by Magnus		*Rianna O’Meara-Hunt	Timmy Hansen	53

Overview of the E1 Series, Team Owners, Pilots and the Racebird boat

(Click to + expand or – close E1 Series Background)

Launched in Jeddah in January 2024, the E1 Series features ten teams racing the one design ‘RaceBird’ all-electric hydrofoiling speedboats at events held in top international ports and waterways. Each team is owned by a noted figure in the worlds of sport, entertainment and business and is led by a female and male pilot who compete in mixed genre races throughout the season. There are no ‘men’s races’ and ‘women’s races’, they are all on equal footing.

The goal of the series, aside from deciding ‘The Champions of the Water’, is to publicize and promote cutting-edge clean technologies while helping to protect and restore our planet’s coastal waters and ecosystems.

The series was founded by Alejandro Agag and Rodi Basso and is loosely patterned after the on-land Formula 1 and Formula E car events, where the emphasis is on the driver’s capabilities rather than throwing money at technology. In fact, Agag is a founder of the Formula E electric car racing series and Basso worked with Ferrari, Red Bull Racing and McLaren Applied Technologies.

The Racebird itself is designed by Sophie Horne of Seabird Technologies. The Sophie Horne. The 7 meter (23 ft) boat has hydrofoiling wings that lift the hull out of the water enabling speeds of up to 90 kmph (50 knots / 55 mph) using a 150 kW (200 brake horsepower) electric outboard system by Mercury Racing and Kreisel batteries.

The ten teams and are their owners are:

Team Brady: former NFL quarterback Tom Brady
Team Rafa: tennis legend Rafael Nadal
 Team Miami: multi-Grammy winner Marc Anthony
Team Aoki: DJ / Producer Steve Aoki
Team AlUlA: championed by basketball’s Lebron James
Team Drogba: Ivory Coast footballer Didier Drogba
 Team Blue Rising: Indian cricketer Virat Kohli
Team Sierra: Sierra Enterprises with ambassadors Thibaut Courtois (Real Madrid soccer) and Kyle Kuzma (NBA basketball)
Team Monaco: Monaco

The pilots of the boats come from a wide variety of disciplines. Many, like Sam Coleman and Emma Kimmaläinen of Team Brady, came from powerboating and motorsport racing, but Maxime Nocher of Team Monaco was a kite surfing champion; Team Drogma’s Tara Pacheco was in sailboat racing; Cris Lazarraga of Team Rafa was a jetski racer and Lucas Ordóñez of Westbrook first entered real life professional racing by winning a spot in a PlayStation 3 Gran Turismo competition.

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Electric Speedboat Series Rules and Strategies

(Click to + expand or – close the rules)

E1 SERIES: RULES

Championship: Ten teams race over 9 weekends, with points awarded for finishing place, along with some bonus points for specific achievements. The Champions of the Water are the team that accumulates most points by the end of the season.

Events: Each event is held over two days, usually a Friday and Saturday. Qualifying time trials and races are held on Day One. Day Two has Group Races which decide two of the finalists, the Race Off to determine the other four finalists, the Place Race, and two Finals races – so both the female and male co-pilots of each team help determine the outcome.

The Finals and Place Race dictate the Championship Points awarded for each weekend.

Points Awarded: Points are awarded for each placing every weekend with the Champion having the most points at the end of the season.
1st: 38 | 2nd: 30 | 3rd: 23 | 4th: 19 | 5th: 15 | 6th: 13 | 7th: 9 | 8th: 8 | 9th: 5 | 10th: 3.

Points are also awarded for the three fastest Qualifiers: Fastest: 3 | 2nd: 2 | 3rd: 1.
One bonus point is awarded for the fastest lap of the weekend.

Qualifying: There are four Qualifying Stages with teams knocked out to establish the pole positions for Saturday’s races.

Qualifying Stage 1: Time Trials in which all 10 teams participate, the results ranked by average of both pilots’ best laps. Bottom 2 teams eliminated.
Qualifying Stage 2: Remaining 8 teams in two sessions (groups of 4). Individual timed runs in reverse order, 2 non-consecutive attempts per team. Bottom 2 teams eliminated.
Qualifying Stage 3: Remaining 6 teams in two sessions (groups of 3). Same format as Q1. Bottom 2 eliminated.
Qualifying Stage 4: Pole Shootout to determines initial Pole Positions on Race Day. Final 4 teams, single 20-minute session. Each completes 2 timed laps in inverted order. Points are awarded toward the Championship total: 3-2-1.

Saturday Racing
Group Stages: teams divided based on Qualifying results:
Group A: 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, 9th
Group B: 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 7th, 10th

The top team from each group advances directly to the Finals. The bottom team from each goes to the Place Race. The teams finishing 2-3-4 in each go to the Race Off.

Race Off: Six team single race (only one pilot from each team) with the top four finishers going to the Finals and the bottom two going to the Place Race.

Place Race: Two races, one with each team’s pilot, best averaged time. Determines places 7-10 and Championship points.

Finals: Two races, one with each team’s pilot, best averaged time. Determines places 1-6 and Championship points.

SOME GENERAL RULES:

Pilots
In every stage except the Group Races and the Race Off both the female and male pilot participate in separate races to determine the winning team of each stage, alternating races throughout the weekend.

In the Finals, the finishing order for the first race determines pole position for the second.

Laps
There is not just one lap length, but three: Short, ‘Normal’ and Long. The distances are tailored to the waters and layout of each location, but are somewhere between 900 m ( ≈ .5 Nm / .6 mi) and 1700 m ( to ≈ .91 Nm / 1.0 mi).

The Qualifying Stages are timed on one Normal lap. The Saturday Races are six laps – one of which must be a Long Lap and one of which must be a Short Lap. Penalties are usually an extra long lap within the six laps, which could add anywhere from 20 to 35 seconds to the overall race time.

Boosts
Then there are the boosts. Pilots are allowed to draw extra energy out of the battery – for bursts of speed up to 20 seconds. The catch is that the time it takes to prepare for another boost is twice as long as the boost itself. So, if a pilot takes a boost for 10 seconds they will have to wait for 20 seconds before they can take another. Between the lap lengths and the boosts, there is a LOT of strategy involved, and the pilots are in constant contact with ‘Mission Control’ back at the dock.

General Strategy
Aside from the boosting and lap strategies, the overriding goal is to find clean water. The RaceBirds travel fastest when they are flying above the water on their foils. The boats need to be balanced both across the beam and along the length for optimum performance and waves – either natural or from the other boats – makes it tougher to stay on foil. That not only slows the pilot down but also requires extra power to get back up out of the water and onto the foils.