until Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League
The Homestead facility best known as a NASCAR venue and a new track in northern Thailand are set to feature when Formula E announces its 2024/25 calendar next week.
Homestead is in line to become FE’s fifth United States track, after a purpose-built Miami circuit (2015), an adaptation of IndyCar’s Long Beach street track (2015 and ‘16), the Red Hook track in Brooklyn (2017-22) and the Portland road course that made its debut last year and will host FE again at the end of this month.
Formula E would use the majority of Homestead’s infield road course, a sometime Grand-Am circuit more recently used for national junior single-seater and one-make GT racing. The Homestead oval was a long-time IndyCar track and has been on the NASCAR Cup calendar since 1999, spending many years at its season finale.
An April 2025 date is likely, although it may initially appear as a ‘TBA’ when the calendar is publicly issued.
The Race revealed last month that talks between Formula E and the Homestead facility had intensified in recent months and a site visit is already believed to have happened.
The possibility of two US races is believed to have been considered but ultimately discounted, mainly for logistical reasons. It last happened when Miami and Long Beach ran back-to-back in Formula E’s inaugural season.
THAI DEBUT TOO
Prior to Homestead, which will likely be a single-header event, Formula E is expected to confirm a planned race in the Thai city of Chiang Mai, thus becoming the first international single-seater championship to race in the country. Formula 1 recently made it clear it is also looking at racing in Thailand in the near future.
The possibility of a race in Chiang Mai is believed to have recently crystallised, with an agreement in place for an early March date.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin had already announced during a tour of Northern Thailand in March that the Chiang Mai province was planning to host Formula E in 2025.
The race is expected to be tied to a major environmental festival which will aim to highlight sustainability drives in the country, including the issue of air pollution and the promotion of electric vehicles.
Formula E is believed to have an element of cover for next season with the Tempelhof event in Berlin able to be moved to the early spring should either Chiang Mai or Homestead run into difficulty.
Earlier this year the Hyderabad E-Prix in India was cancelled just six weeks before it was due to run after regional political complications scuppered the race.
Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds told The Race in March that “a lot of the conversation we're having now is ‘do you accept disruption is part and parcel of having street circuits?’ or instead, do you say, ‘well, look, there's options, we could pre-book fixed circuits, on certain dates and pay small holding deposits if something goes wrong?’”
ANOTHER WEC CLASH?
Berlin Tempelhof is expected to move to a July date but could be used with floating intentions and be moved earlier in the year should it need to. Its recent FE dates have been in either April or May.
What happens with Berlin could ultimately dictate whether there is a clash with the World Endurance Championship, which is believed to have an event already confirmed for mid-July 2025. Its calendar is expected to be announced next Friday during the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Another FE/WEC clash would have a big impact on the FE driver market, which is currently in a state of fervour, given the traditional overlap of drivers between the two series.
Some FE teams are now stipulating exclusivity from drivers, many of whom already have 2025 WEC contracts in place which themselves have priority clauses.
Formula E will start its 2024/25 campaign on the first Saturday of December at the specially constructed Anhembi Stadium track that has hosted a Sao Paulo E-Prix since March 2022. That will then be followed by the traditional early/mid-January date at the Mexico City E-Prix, again held at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Pre-season testing will take place in the first week of November and as revealed by The Race will include an all-female period of testing time during the three days of running.
The provisional calendar for 2024-25 is set to be ratified next week at the FIA World Motorsport Council meeting.
