Formula E ready for Miami return - with a few twists

A decade on from its last proper visit to the state of Florida, Formula E is gearing up for a return. Unlike last time, however, the Miami E-Prix won’t be taking place on the streets along Biscayne Bay, but at nearby Homestead-Miami Speedway.

Best known these days as a NASCAR venue, Homestead is no stranger to welcoming other categories, with IndyCar, sports car racing, Formula Regional and even Superbike racing all having occurred at the track in years past.

While this weekend's Miami E-Prix will be the first open-wheel series at the track since Formula Regional Americas visited in 2020 (and the first top-level open-wheel race at the facility since IndyCar's Grand Prix of Miami in 2010), it will also be the first time at all that an all-electric series has visited the venue.

The infield road course at Homestead-Miami Speedway will present a significantly different challenge than a typical Formula E temporary circuit. Simon Galloway/Getty Images

Minor changes to Homestead’s road course have been made for this weekend, with a tighter Turn 1 and a chicane being added to the back stretch. Track length in total comes in at 2.206 miles, with 15 turns (not counting a slight left kink onto the start-finish straight at the end of the lap).

It's a far cry from the eight-turn, 1.345-mile street circuit from 10 years ago. The series itself is unrecognizable, too. We’re two-and-a-half generations of car ahead, and things like mid-race driver changes and Fan Boost are distant memories.

Speaking of the track, DS Penske’s Jean-Eric Vergne described it as “a demanding circuit.”

“It is not just about the speed,” he explained. “You have to be smart with energy use and stay clean through the technical sections. With the added heat and humidity, it is going to be a real test for everyone on the grid.”

Five drivers from Formula E’s previous race in Miami – Sam Bird, Sebastien Buemi, Lucas di Grassi, Antonio Felix da Costa and Vergne – still compete in Formula E today.

Vergne, then driving for Andretti, started on pole and led until overheating issues dropped him out of contention. Abt’s Daniel Abt subsequently led but Renault e.dam’s Nicolas Prost – who pitted to swap to his second car a lap later than the German – capitalized on an energy advantage to get by with two laps to go.

Abt then was passed by Scott Speed – making his debut for Andretti – to drop him to third and ensure America's first Formula E race had an American on the podium.

While the event was a success, Miami didn’t stick around for the second season of Formula E as the championship continued to grow and develop. Additional U.S. venues took its place, though.

Miami and Formula E will be unrecognizable to each other when they're reunited this weekend, 10 years on from the series' last visit to Florida (above). The cars have changed dramatically over the past decade, while the venue moves from a street course to Miami-Homestead's roval. Adam Warner/Getty Images

There was a race in Long Beach three weeks later utilizing most of the IndyCar course – coming in at 1.302 miles as opposed to the full 1.968 miles – won by eventual series champion Nelson Piquet Jr. (who took the fastest lap in Miami), and another there the following season, won by di Grassi.

For Season 3, Formula E headed to New York for races in the Red Hook area of Brooklyn – an event that would go on to be the longest-serving U.S. venue in Formula E, sticking around for five seasons (notwithstanding a one-year absence due to the COVID-19 pandemic).

The 2017 New York City E-Prix was the first open-wheel street race in the greater New York area since the 1991 Meadowlands Grand Prix in East Rutherford, New Jersey – that in itself ended a 47 year gap since the last true Vanderbilt Cup race when it debuted in 1984. It also succeeded where the proposed Grand Prix of America failed, with F1’s plans for a New York street race in the early 2010s not coming to fruition.

Each of the five visits to New York was a double-header event. Bird swept the board in 2017, before di Grassi and Vergne won in 2018. 2019's victories went to Buemi and Robin Frijns, who now find themselves as teammates at Envision Racing, before Maximiliam Guenther and Bird shared the spoils when Formula E returned Stateside after its COVID hiatus. New York's final races were won by Nick Cassidy and da Costa, before construction work in the area forced the circus to move west for a two-year jaunt at Portland Raceway.

Previous U.S. winners Cassidy (2023) and da Costa (2024) took the wins in Portland – the first visit being a single race and the second a double-header – with the races being typical energy saving affairs with tense finishes.

Homestead’s nature of long straights punctuated by heavy braking zones and a mix of high- and low-speed corners means that a similar show could be on the cards, and championship leader Oliver Rowland expects those characteristics to play into his Nissan package’s hands.

“It’s a long lap so getting up to speed quickly will be important," he said. "The race strategy should suit my style with the energy saving, so I’m looking forward to being out there.”

Taylor Barnard of McLaren customer NEOM McLaren agreed, adding, “I’m expecting it to be a challenging pack-style race.”

But while the new venue will provide some similarities to others in terms of racing, there will be a key difference. Formula E has held races on street circuits, permanent road courses, and ones that sit somewhere between the two, but it has never held a race at an oval facility.

“[It] will be an exciting feature of the weekend,” said Andretti’s Nico Mueller, one of eight drivers in the field with ‘roval’ experience by virtue of starts in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

“I’ve raced Daytona before, so I have some understanding of how it will feel, but time will tell if that experience will help me when we get out to Miami. Nevertheless, it’s still going to be a cool experience.”

The Miami E-Prix comes after an eight week break for Formula E, but the area helped fill that void by hosting the first ‘Evo Sessions’ event at the Miami International Autodrome, home of Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix, where a group of 11 influencers and media personalities got behind the wheel of Formula E cars for an online content series that will spawn a feature-length documentary later in the year. But while the one-of-a-kind event did a good job of filling the void, it’s a distant memory. Now, the serious talk resumes.