Formula E is set to have another lengthy gap in its calendar next year because it will soon cancel its two planned March 2022 dates and has been unable to find direct replacements.
The 2022 season is now set to take place at 10 venues with six of them – Diriyah, Rome, Berlin, New York City, London and Seoul – scheduled to host double-headers to make up a 16-race season.
Rome and Berlin’s Sunday races are likely to be officially added at today’s meeting of the FIA World Motor Sport Council.
The decision to accept an eight-week gap between the Mexico City round in mid-February and the Rome E-Prix in April comes after attempts to stage a race on what was listed as a ‘to be confirmed’ venue on March 5 came to nothing.
Marrakesh was at one stage earmarked to stage an E-Prix on this date, but Formula E has now elected not to have a race on the specially adapted version of the Circuit International Automobile Moulay El Hassan, which it last visited in 2020 just before the coronavirus pandemic halted motorsport.
Last week Morocco instigated a flight ban via national carrier Air Maroc in the country until at least the beginning of January.
The nation had initially banned all arriving flights for two weeks, from November 29 to December 13, but this is likely to now be extended due to the rise of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
In addition the race at an unspecified venue in China planned for March 19 has been cancelled due to travel and access difficulties around China.
This ensures that two months will pass before Formula E races again after its third race of the year in Mexico on February 12.
The Race understands that Formula E’s strategic event planning department worked right up until Tuesday evening to keep open possibilities to try to confirm at least one race in March to bridge the gap from Mexico City to Rome.
The now scratched March 5 date was first added at the last FIA world motorsport council meeting in October when it became clear that the planned inaugural Cape Town E-Prix, originally slotted in for February 28, could not take place in 2022.
Formula E has endured such lengthy gaps in calendars before over the duration of its seven year history.
In the 2019/20 season there were eight weeks between the opening Saudi Arabia races and the second event in Chile.
The 2016/17 campaign featured the biggest planned break in the schedule – 11 weeks straddled the gap between the second race in Marrakesh and the third round in Buenos Aires.
The five-month 2020 calendar gap between Marrakesh and the six-race Berlin finale was of course an unavoidable consequence of the pandemic rather than a planned schedule.
Despite the inactivity, Formula E and the FIA now has a clear road to officially launch the new-for-2023 Gen3 car, which was shown to some stakeholders privately at the recent Valencia pre-season test.
The first ever Jakarta E-Prix on June 4 is expected to go ahead as planned although a new site for the race is yet to be ratified.
The FIA and Formula E Operations teams have visited the Indonesian capital in recent weeks for feasibility studies on several sites.
Jakarta media has reported that several new areas have emerged as potential venues for a race after the original site in the historic Merdeka Square was deemed unsuitable for use last year.
LATEST 2022 FORMULA E CALENDAR
January 28-29: Diriyah (double-header)
February 12: Mexico City
April 9-10: Rome (double-header tbc)
April 30: Monaco
May 14-15: Berlin (double-header tbc)
June 4: Jakarta
July 2: Vancouver
July 16-17: New York (double-header)
July 30-31: London E-Prix (double-header)
August 13-14: Seoul E-Prix (double-header)
To be ratified by FIA WMSC
