There are some places that make speed look especially good, and Lake Como has been doing that for a very long time. This spring, E1 returns to the lake, bringing its all electric RaceBirds back to one of the most striking settings in sport. It is also the only fresh water stop on this season’s calendar, giving the race a character all of its own.
That sense of return is important. E1 is still a young championship, but Lake Como is already part of its story. E1 presents itself as more than a race series, describing the championship as a platform for electric innovation, marine mobility and greater awareness around protecting waterways. Its RaceBirds, with their electric propulsion and foiling technology, are designed to glide above the surface in a way that feels futuristic, but on Lake Como that modernity sits easily alongside a much older racing culture.
Because racing on this lake did not begin with E1. Yacht Club Como traces organised racing here back to 1934, while the Centomiglia del Lario, first run in 1949, became one of the defining events in Italian powerboating and is now described as one of the oldest continuously running powerboat races in the world. Over the decades, Lake Como built a reputation not only for competition, but for craftsmanship, engineering and the kind of local pride that turns racing into part of a place’s identity.
That relationship with performance extends beyond the water too. The Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, first held in 1929 through the Automobile Club of Como and Villa d’Este, remains one of the most celebrated events in the classic car world. It is not racing, but it reflects the same instinct that has shaped so much of Como’s history, an appreciation for machinery not just as function, but as beauty, spectacle and design.
That is what makes the return of E1 feel so well suited to the lake. The championship arrives with all the language of the future, electric propulsion, foiling technology, sustainability and innovation, while Lake Como brings memory, atmosphere and a deep rooted sporting tradition. The result is not a clash between old and new, but something much more seamless. On Lake Como, racing has always been about more than speed alone. It is about how movement fits into a landscape, how performance can still feel elegant, and how sport becomes part of the wider character of a place. E1 is not introducing that idea here. It is returning to it.
The E1 Lake Como GP, part of the UIM E1 World Championship and hosted by Villa d'Este will take place on April 24-25 2026.
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