Formula E expected to emphasize stability with next season's schedule

Formula E’s schedule for next season is taking shape, and much of it is expected to remain the same as the current schedule.

Calendar stability is nothing new for Formula E, with seven of the current 10 venues featuring on last season's calendar, another one (Jakarta) returning after a one year absence, and both Saudi Arabia and the United States remaining on the schedule albeit in different cities. But co-founder and chief championship officer Alberto Longo says that continuity will go even further next season.

“What is important about the calendar is that we're going to have a level of stability that we have never had before,” said Longo. “So basically, 95 percent of the races, 90 percent of the races that happened this year, they're going to happen again next year.”

Longo said that the current number of 16 races in 10 cities could be expanded, but insisted that 18 rounds would be the maximum. Nine of the 10 current host cities have already renewed, with the 10th keen to also sign on, but the details are currently being finalized.

“There is one doubt at the moment that I'm dealing with, because the contract is finishing after this season, and they have publicly said already that they want to renew, but obviously there are some negotiations pending in order to renew for another three to five years,” said Longo. “So we have these nine to 10 cities totally confirmed, and I'm dealing with the inclusion of another one to three cities in the calendar.”

One thing that won’t be repeated will be this season’s eight-week gap early in the season. The lull, which came about after plans for a race in Thailand fell through, was filled with the Evo Sessions influencer event at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium. Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds does want that concept to return, albeit as part of an existing race weekend, but insists a lengthy gap between races will not be happening again if another race event were to fall through.

“I don't think we’ll take the gap,” he said. “I think we'd look at alternative venues. We've got probably a dozen fixed circuits around the world that we could rent. It would be in a similar part of the world, probably from a logistics point of view. 

“I don't think we're keen on having a seven week or eight week gap in the calendar. I think we're keen on doing the EVO sessions again next year, but tagged on to an existing location. And I think we will be keen to not have a gap wider than five weeks, so that wouldn't be our first choice.”

Expanding on where potential fallback options could be, should Formula E find itself in the unlikely position of needing to plug a gap again, Dodds said, “There's plenty in Spain that we like, there's some in Italy that you'd have seen us race on before, some in the UK, Morocco, there are plenty of them. 

 “There's a load in the U.S. that I think are really interesting options, but they might not work logistically. So I think you've got to be a bit careful. China has some great tracks, by the way.”

 While Dodd’s did touch on Italy, a full return to the country isn’t expected in the immediate future. When Formula E outgrew the street circuit it had used in Rome from the final season of GEN1, through GEN2 to the first season of GEN3, it raced in Misano last season, but that isn’t looked at as a full calendar option, with Dodds admitting “it just didn’t work for us”.

 “I think we're at best season 13 [for a] return to Italy,” he said. “Whether that's back in Rome on a different circuit layout, whether it's in Milan, whether it's in Turin… The venue we tested, which was the Misano circuit – by the way, they were absolutely lovely people to work with, and they really bent over backwards, it just didn't work for us. 

 “I think what we're discovering is there are some types of fixed circuits that really work for us because they have a road-style layout.

 “There are other fixed circuits we look at with a road layout that can be really good for us. A fixed circuit made more for an IndyCar race seems to work as well.”