Welcome to It Only Takes E Minute, where Kamui Kobayashi has been signed up to race the season opener in Hong Kong.

Former F1 racer Kamui Kobayashi will join the Andretti team for the first round of this year’s Formula E championship, lining up alongside Antonio Felix da Costa. He’s not expected to run the full season, but a one off appearance should be great for the driver, the team and of course, the fans.

Kobayashi has driven for Toyota and Sauber in Formula One, but has more recently been battling in the World Endurance Championship, taking pole at Le Mans this year.

Now, he’s got a new challenge, and the Japanese driver says: “I will be going to the race weekend without testing, which is not an easy thing to be honest but the team has given me all the support, so no worries at all. Andretti is one of the world’s most popular racing families and I am so excited to have my Formula E debut race under his name.”

CEO of the team Michael Andretti says: “We are very fortunate to have a driver of Kobayashi’s calibre in the car to start the season. He has shown what he can do in both Formula 1 and WEC, making Formula E a perfect next step.”

Credit: Sauber F1 Team

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You’re listening to It Only Takes E Minute, and we briefly have to touch upon politics amid Brexit concerns.

CEO of Formula E, Alejandro Agag, has warned that he may be forced to take the sport out of the UK overnight if the Brexit deal isn’t satisfactory in terms of tax and employment clauses. He said: “We have a lot of expats that work in the company, and a lot of our contracts come from the European Union in terms of sponsorship, so if there is not a deal in terms of tax and employment, we will leave.”

Currently, about 100 staff are employed at the London headquarters for the sport, with Agag supposing they are half of them British and the other half from outside the UK. Whilst Agag would prefer to stay in London, he said: “We probably would leave overnight. We could make a decision in one day and then leave. We’re looking at different options. Maybe Holland, maybe Monaco. Some nearby place in the European Union.”

His specific concerns around tax are that if Brexit doesn’t sort a deal that keeps withholding tax rates low, then his revenue would drop and it would be crazy not to avoid that situation. As he says: “It’s a no-brainer.”

Credit: FIA

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