COTA added as Formula E unveils 2026-27 calendar and format

Formula E has announced a new sporting format along with its calendar – featuring three new venues – for the 2026-27 season.

The calendar will comprise 21 races at 13 locations, with eight tracks hosting double-headers. In a change from the current double-header format, there will no longer be two races of similar length on the same weekend. Instead, the first race will be a shorter sprint-like race, dubbed E-PrixUnleashed, while the second will be a typical Formula E race with Pit Boost fast charging pit stops.

The season will begin in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia with two races on December 18-19 for Formula E’s third visit to the city and its first time hosting the season opener.

Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds says the high-speed circuit will be the perfect place to showcase the faster, more powerful GEN4 cars in their initial race outing, and also suggested safety concerns with the ongoing middle east conflict – that led to Formula 1 cancelling its race at the same circuit earlier this year – weren’t an issue.

“We know that that circuit will allow the GEN4 to show itself off to its fullest capability,” he said. “It’s a very fast circuit there, and we also know our friends in Saudi Arabia will invest fully in helping us to make sure that there's a real showcase for the start of the GEN4 era.

“I spoke to one of our largest manufacturer partners last week to ask them the question, if we were to race in Saudi Arabia next week, would there be any restrictions or any issues with them coming to race there, and they checked and came back and said, ‘if we were racing there now, there will be no restrictions placed on them, they would be free to come and race in Jeddah in the Middle East now.’

“We're very optimistic that we should be in a strong place to open the season in Saudi Arabia. The good news about it being the opening race is if there were to be issues, we still have another seven months, eight months of the calendar left to run, so we can look at alternative ways to slot Saudi Arabia.”

Following the Saudi Arabia races before the festive period, there will be four races in the Americas at the turn of the new year.

Mexico City will feature on January 16, before the series heads to Circuit of the Americas on February 6. Two weeks later the series returns to Miami International Autodrome, before the annual trip to Sao Paulo, Brazil takes place on March 13.

After a break of just over a month, the first of two trips to China will happen with the Sanya E-Prix, before a run of European double-headers in Berlin, Monaco, two more new venues in Brands Hatch in the UK – a modified version of the former-grand prix circuit will replace the ExCeL Centre in London – and Zandvoort for Formula E's first races in the Netherlands.

The final European races take place at Jarama near Madrid on June 26-27, where a second race will be added after its successful debut this season. It will also hold pre-season testing.

After the European run, there will be back-to-back Asian double-headers in Shanghai and Tokyo to see out the season.

“We are incredibly proud to unveil our biggest and most ambitious calendar to date,” said Formula E co-founder and chief championship officer Alberto Longo. “Expanding to 21 races across 13 iconic cities is a huge milestone, and welcoming world-renowned tracks like COTA in Austin, Zandvoort, and Brands Hatch provides the ultimate stage to showcase our new GEN4 era.

“Every stop on this calendar has been chosen to deliver maximum sporting drama. Launching the season with our first-ever opener under the lights in Jeddah to showcase the speed of these GEN4 cars sets a spectacular tone, while grouping our races into distinct continental clusters ensures we do so as sustainably as possible. The tracks are faster, the competition is fiercer, and we cannot wait to get this historic season underway.”

2026-27 Formula E calendar

Saudi Arabia, Jeddah Jeddah Corniche Circuit - 18-19 December 2026

Mexico, Mexico City Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez - 16 January 2027

USA, Austin The Circuit of The Americas (COTA) - 6 February 2027

USA, Miami Miami International Autodrome - 20 February 2027

Brazil, Sao Paulo Anhembi Sambadrome Circuit - 13 March 2027

China, Sanya Haitang Bay Circuit - 17 April 2027

Germany, Berlin Tempelhof Airport Street Circuit - 8-9 May 2027

Monaco, Monaco Circuit de Monaco - 15-16 May 2027

UK, London Brands Hatch - 29-30 May 2027

Netherlands, Zandvoort MASCOT Zandvoort Circuit - 18-19 June 2027

Spain, Madrid Circuito de Madrid Jarama-RACE - 26-27 June 2027

China, Shanghai Shanghai International Circuit - 10-11 July 2027

Japan, Tokyo Tokyo Street Circuit - 24-25 July 2027

The calendar is Formula E’s longest to-date, expanding from the 17 races at 11 locations of this season. Dodds expects the number of races to become the norm in the coming years, but suggested there could still be more locations added in future, coming at the expense of double headers – next season will be the highest number of them in a single Formula E season.

“What I would say is there is still scope within this calendar to reduce the number of double-headers and add new locations, so to largely state around that 21 race calendar, but to get there in a slightly different way,” he said. “So nothing's off the table. We have around a dozen serious live conversations with other potential locations, some of those are locations that we've been talking to for a long time, and others are brand new locations that have come to us with an interest in hosting a race.

“So I would say broadly the number we don't expect to change. Maybe it changes to 22 from 21 over the next few years, but broadly the number is a number that everyone's comfortable with, teams, media partners, manufacturers, ourselves, the FIA.”

The new format will allow GEN4 cars to be pushed to their limits. Photo courtesy of Nissan

For those double header weekends, the second race of the weekend will be a typical 45-minute E-Prix with a focus on energy management and strategy, with the use of Pit Boost. The first race will be an 'E-PrixUnleashed' race, 30 minutes in duration, which will be a performance-focused sprint.

Speaking on the new format, Pablo Martino, head of championship for Formula E at the FIA, said the addition of a shorter, sprint-like race has been done to showcase the performance capabilities of the new cars.

“In conjunction with Jeff and his team, we have prepared a championship format that we believe it's going to showcase primarily all the capabilities of the new car,” he said.

“It's going to continue keeping the same spirit that Formula E has today, we are going to continue seeing the Attack Mode as one of the relevant elements, we are going to continue having Pit Boost, we are going to continue having the same qualifying format with the Groups and the Duals, but we have just tried to give it much more relevance and give much more interest for the spectators.

“One race that will be the E-Prix that will be the same similar approach as the current championship races that we have today, with around a 25% lift of requirement for the drivers in order to manage the energy and the deployment of energy, but then we will have the E-PrixUnleashed, which will be shorter races of around 25 to 30 minutes length, that it will have much lower requirements of energy management, that's going to provide a much more showcase of the performance capabilities of the car.”

When it comes to qualifying, while the Group and Duels format will remain, they carry extra incentive in the championship fight, with more points on offer. Each of the eight cars – two from each group – will receive a point, the top qualifier will receive four points (plus an additional one for pole position), second will get three, third and fourth will get two points, and fifth through eighth will each receive a single point.

“We are delighted to support the expansion of the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship calendar into key markets such as the USA, as well as on circuits that we believe will truly showcase the dynamic capabilities of the new GEN4 car,” said Marek Nawarecki, director of the FIA’s Circuit Sport Department. “This is also a particularly significant moment for us, as we are now able to reveal the framework of the GEN4 sporting regulations.

“Working in partnership with Formula E and in close consultation with the competitors, we have adapted these regulations to match and highlight the incredible performance of the GEN4, and we believe the result will achieve exactly that.”