Category: Formula E

Formula E has firmed up the calendar for its upcoming 10th season, expanding its U.S. event into a doubleheader and confirming the location for the planned twin-bill in Italy.

After racing on the streets of Rome since 2018 (except for 2020 when the COVID19 pandemic forced its absence), Formula E will move to Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in the Emilia-Romagna region.

“We are excited to race at the historic Misano track for the first time and introduce the huge local motorsport fan base to Formula E’s uniquely competitive racing,” said Alberto Longo, co-founder and chief championship officer of Formula E. “Everyone associated with the track and region has been incredibly enthusiastic in welcoming Formula E to the area, and I would like to thank them for their support.”

Misano will be one of four permanent tracks on the street circuit-centric series’ schedule next season, with Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City hosting the season opener, the Shanghai International Circuit hosting the series’ return to China, and Portland International Raceway (pictured above) again the location for the series’ only U.S. visit.

However, the Portland event will be expanded to a doubleheader — one of five on the schedule — creating a 17-race calendar, the longest in Formula E history.

“Formula E delivers street racing better than anyone, and our final season 10 calendar presents the ultimate challenge for teams and drivers in the second year of the GEN3 race car with the perfect blend of iconic street circuits and established tracks,” said Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds. “Misano will be a great new experience for everyone, while the additional race in Portland signifies our ongoing commitment to the US market alongside the potential for growth in the region.”

2024 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship calendar

Round 1. Mexico City, Mexico – January 13
Round 2 & 3. Diriyah, Saudi Arabia – January 26-27
Round 4. Hyderabad, India – February 10
Round 5. Sao Paulo, Brazil – March 16
Round 6. Tokyo, Japan – March 30
Round 7 & 8. Misano, Italy – April 13-14
Round 9. Monaco – April 27
Round 10 & 11. Berlin, Germany – May 11-12
Round 12 & 13. Shanghai, China – May 25-26
Round 14 & 15. Portland, Ore. – June 29-30
Round 16 & 17. London, UK – July 20-21

Formula E will begin its tenth season by attending the United Nations’ COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai from November 30 until December 12 in a bid to persuade other sports to follow its lead on sustainability.

The open-wheel series was the first in motorsport to embrace all-electric drivetrains in 2014, and became a fully-fledged FIA world championship by its seventh season. In 2020 it became the first sport of any kind in the world to have its emissions reductions targets validated by the Science Based Target Initiative (SBTi), and is on course to achieve that target (a 45 percent overall reduction) by 2030.

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Now, a delegation representing the series, its team, and partners will attend the UN summit to call on other elite sport leaders to “give it everything” in their sustainability efforts.

“Elite sport reaches a global audience of billions every week,” said Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds. “Athletes are among the most-followed and influential people on the planet. Collectively, we have the potential to make positive changes for a more sustainable future and encourage fans to do the same. To use popular football manager parlance, we need to ‘give it everything’.”

Formula E’s first race in 2014 took place in Beijing, and will return to China in the upcoming season for the Shanghai ePrix. In the time since that inaugural race, Formula E cars have become 75 percent more powerful, with half of the energy used in the current car – which debuted last season – coming from regenerative braking. The series has also done away with mid-race car changes (since 2018), and will introduce fast charging mid-race this season, putting the series at the forefront of electric mobility development.

But Formula E hasn’t just been about sustainability and technology development – it has been able to back both of those things up with a quality sporting product, too. Last season saw Formula E break every one of its records for overtakes, lap times, and speeds achieved in races.

Formula E hasn’t even raced in Tokyo yet, but it is already eyeing a second race in the Japanese capital. The first Tokyo ePrix will take place on March 30, 2024, but a preliminary date of May 17, 2025 has already been targeted for season 11.

Like the upcoming Season 10 event, the second Tokyo ePrix will be hosted in cooperation with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, and will help the city promote its aim of banning new combustion vehicles from 2030.

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A Tokyo ePrix has long been in the works, with the city being among the first to express an interest in hosting a race of the all-electric series when it debuted in 2013. The news of it already locking in a second event comes as the track layout for the first Tokyo ePrix was revealed.

“We are excited to unveil the track for the inaugural Tokyo ePrix and are confident it will create a unique challenge for the 22 drivers in Formula E to showcase their elite driving skills and give fans in Tokyo an experience they will never forget,” said Alberto Longo, co-founder and chief championship officer of Formula E. “We are honored to be the first motorsport world championship to race on the streets of Tokyo.”

The 2023-24 Formula E season officially began last month with a four-day test in Valencia, but the first race won’t take place until January 13 in Mexico City.

From then, a double-header event will take place on the streets of Riyadh in Saudi Arabia two weeks later, followed by trips to Hyderabad in India and Sao Paulo Brazil before the inaugural Tokyo race.

Afterwards another double-header event will take place at a yet-to-be announced location in Italy, with rounds in Monaco and back-to-back double-headers in Berlin, Germany and Shanghai, China following. The season will conclude with a round in Portland, Oregon, and two races in the UK and London’s ExCeL.

The second day of Formula E testing has been canceled after a fire brought the first day of running at Valencia’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo to an early halt.

After Robert Shwartzman’s DS Penske stopped on track in the morning session, the car’s battery was removed by supplier Williams Advanced Engineering. It subsequently caught fire, resulting in a paddock evacuation and one WAE staff member being taken to a local hospital as a precaution.

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Now the series has released a statement confirming Wednesday’s running will not go ahead.

“In response to an incident earlier today at Formula E pre-season testing in Valencia when a fire caused damage to a garage in the pit lane, on-track testing activity will not go ahead tomorrow, Wednesday,” said the statement.

The statement added that an investigation into the cause of the fire was ongoing, but an issue had been identified already, and is being addressed.

“The investigation and further safety assessments will be completed and we aim to resume on-track activities from Thursday, subject to final confirmation tomorrow,” the statement concluded.

Jaguar’s Mitch Evans was the pacesetter before proceedings were brought to a halt on Tuesday afternoon. Pre-season testing was set to run from Tuesday to Thursday, with a pair of three hour sessions each day.

The fire is the first incident of its kind in Formula E’s 10-season history, but follows one at July’s World Rallycross event at Lydden Hill in the UK which destroyed Special ONE Racing’s cars and equipment, ruling it out for the remainder of the season. An investigation into the cause of that fire is still ongoing, with World RX teams switching to the single-make Zeroid X1 car used in the RX2e support category in order to see out the final two rounds of their season. World RX uses a different battery supplier to Formula E – Kreisel – while RX2e also differs, being supplied by QEV Technologies.

The first day of pre-season testing for Season 10 of Formula E at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia was halted after the first of two planned sessions after a battery fire during the day’s lunch break.

The fire began in the garage of battery supplier Williams Advanced Engineering, and was said to have been caused by the battery of Robert Schwartzman’s DS Penske car, which had been removed after the car stopped on-track in the morning session. It was not related to the new fast-charging systems which were being used on-track for the first time ahead of their debut this season.

The fire was quickly extinguished, and one WAE staff member was transported to a local hospital for precautionary checks.

“In a break between practice sessions, a fire was detected in the pitlane and garage area which has been contained,” said Formula E in a statement. “The on-track incident response team acted immediately to contain the incident while the main pit building and garages were quickly evacuated.

“One person has been assessed by medics and has been transported to hospital for precautionary checks.

“Formula E, the FIA and local fire authorities are investigating the cause and will provide a further update in due course.”

Series organizers then followed up with a second statement announcing that the rest of the day’s running had been scrapped while the investigation and cleanup operations are ongoing.

“Following the incident earlier today, the FIA have advised Formula E and all teams that on-track activities have been canceled for the rest of the day.

“This will allow for the area to return to safe working conditions. Further updates will be shared in due course.”

Before the incident, Jaguar TCS Racing’s Mitch Evans was fastest, setting a time of 1m 24.474 late in the morning.

His best was 0.143s ahead of Porsche’s Antonio Felix da Costa, with Season 2 champion Sebastien Buemi third for Envision Racing, a further 0.024s adrift. Mahindra’s Eduardo Mortara made it four different teams in the top four, with Porsche driver Pascal Wehrlein rounding out the top five.

Five rookie stand-ins were in action, as well as full-season debutant Jehan Daruvala – Shwartzman took Stoffel Vandoorne’s place at DS Penske, Zane Maloney deputized for reigning champion Jake Dennis at Andretti Global, Taylor Barnard took new McLaren signing Sam Bird’s seat, while Luca Ghiotto and Victor Martins occupied both Nissans in place of Oliver Rowland and Sacha Fenestraz.

Barnard impressed, going fastest just before the second hour of the three-hour session. He eventually wound up seventh quickest behind Maserati MSG’s Maximilian Gunther.

Nico Muller (Abt Cupra) and Segio Sette Camara (ERT, formerly NIO) were next, with Nick Cassidy rounding out the top 10 in his first outing for Jaguar.

Last season Formula E introduced its Gen3 car, which was its fastest and most powerful to date, enabling the series to topple a number of records.

New benchmarks for the fastest average lap time and the highest speed were set, while there was more race leaders and more overtakes than ever before.

But it’s not just on track where numbers have been on the rise, with the series announcing a 17 percent increase in its viewership.

The year-on-year increase to 344 million viewers – a number provided by Potentia Insight, which conducted its research in July as the season was coming to an end – pushes it above NASCAR to become the fourth-biggest motorsport in the world in terms of the size of its fanbase.

“We are well on the way to establishing Formula E as the most exciting and innovative motorsport for fans, alongside being the world’s most sustainable sport,” said Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds. “Our teams and drivers exceeded all expectations from a year ago to take the Gen3 car and push it beyond what we all thought was possible. As a result, the entertainment value of Formula E racing is off the scale, which is attracting more fans and TV viewers than ever before.

“We are committed to building on that momentum and developing new ways of presenting our race events to grow the fanbase and audiences even faster.”

Germany and the USA were the fastest-growing markets for Formula E, enjoying a 45 percent and 30 percent increase in viewers respectively.

Across last season, more than 225 million people watched Formula E races live, representing a 4 percent increase on Season Eight (2021-22). Countries that had the biggest rises in the number of live viewers were China, the USA, Brazil, India, and South Africa – the latter three all joining the race calendar in 2023.