Formula E has unveiled its schedule for the 2024-25 season, which will feature a record 17 races at 11 locations, including a return visit to Miami.
Less than a quarter of the races will take place on permanent circuits, bucking what seemed to be a trend of Formula E moving over to established venues at the expense of its customary street circuits. Those permanent tracks will be Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, Homestead Miami Speedway, and Shanghai International Circuit.
The season will straddle two calendar years for the first time since the 2019-20 season, with things kicking off in Brazil this December, before returning to Mexico in the new year. Then Diriyah in Saudi Arabia will follow, before an entirely new venue – which will be announced at a later date – in March.
Another new location, this time Homestead Miami Speedway, is the next stop in April, before the now annual visit to Monaco at the start of May. A three-event jaunt to Asia follows, with races in Tokyo, Japan, Shanghai, China, and Jakarta, Indonesia – returning after a one season break – before the staple event at Berlin’s Tempelhof Airport and the finale in London to see out the season.
The upcoming season, the first of the GEN3 Evo era, will feature six doubleheader events, with Saudi Arabia, Monaco, Japan, China, Germany, and the United Kingdom each hosting two races over a single weekend. For the event in Tokyo, the expansion to a doubleheader comes after a successful debut in the Japanese capital back in March – the first time a professional motor race had taken place on Japanese streets (pictured top)
“We could’ve sold the tickets for the Tokyo race multiple times over, and it was the first time that they’d ever closed the roads in Tokyo for any sporting event outside of the Tokyo marathon,” said Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds. “So the fact that they’ve invited us to do two races there back-to-back is a massive sign of confidence from the Tokyo metropolitan government and I think brilliant for Japanese fans who were unable to secure a ticket last year, they’ll have two gos at doing that, on both the Saturday and the Sunday.”
Meanwhile Monaco’s two races will mark the first time a top-level series has raced there twice on the same weekend, and comes after another highly competitive event on the streets of the principality seven weeks ago.
“It’s interesting, (there was) lots of talk after the Formula 1 race in Monaco about whether after 95 years that circuit is still suitable as a motor racing circuit,” said Dodds. “We delivered over 200 overtakes on the Monaco circuit in the formula E race this year, so I think to be granted the opportunity to go there and do back-to-back races for the first time ever in motorsport history in Monaco, again it’s a lovely moment for us as a championship.”
One glaring omission is that of Italy, which is off the Formula E calendar for the first time since the 2016-17 season (aside from the COVID-affected 2019-20 campaign).
Dodds says that Formula E is still keen to race in Italy, but after outgrowing its previous home on the streets of Rome, then trialling Misano earlier this year, it is exploring other avenues which will enable it to have a long-term footprint in the country.
“We definitely want to establish a home in Italy, that’s never been in question in our business,” he said. “We raced in Rome for a long time, and I think everybody knows a combination of our cars getting faster and the circuit being properly maxed out in our ability to race faster cars on that circuit, and a little bit about the economics as well, meant that Rome didn’t look like it was a long-term home for us, particularly as we’ve gone to GEN3 Evo and we’ve got our eyes on GEN4.
“Misano came to us as an option as a possibility. We tried it … we were made to feel to feel so incredibly welcome at Misano, the facilities were great, the leadership team were brilliant, they made us feel incredibly welcome and it felt like a lovely event, but the reality is for the location, which is quite a way away from the nearest airport, and the style of racing, which not every one of the drivers and teams loved, it didn’t feel to us like that was going to be the permanent home, the long-term home. We think we need to be closer to a large city, and ideally we would be on a street circuit, not a permanent circuit there.