The next Formula E schedule is set to be at least a week shorter but is expected to have two new venues in Tokyo and Malaga to make it an 18-race season as opposed to the present 16.
The earlier finish is because the 2024 London E-Prix at ExCeL Arena is to be pencilled in for the weekend of July 20/21 next week to ensure that it does not clash with the Paris Olympic Games, which gets underway on July 26.
Formula E will issue a provisional list of races at the forthcoming FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Spain later this month. It is confident that it can keep the four new-for-2023 races – Hyderabad (pictured above), Cape Town, Portland and Sao Paulo – on that list in addition to new E-Prixs in Tokyo and potentially Malaga, which The Race revealed last month as being a possible 2024 race host.
The Race understands that agreement with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government is close after talks continued at the recent Jakarta E-Prix weekend earlier this month. A decision on whether a first ever Japanese E-Prix takes place is expected to be made in the coming days.
The likelihood of racing in Malaga remains unclear but a plan to host a race in the Spanish coastal city is known to be well advanced. A date at the end of May is the preferred option should a deal be struck, while Tokyo is likely for a late-March slot.
The season is likely to start in Mexico City on January 13, the corresponding weekend to when the 2023 season began. There had been the possibility of starting the season this December – bringing the series back into the original Formula E practice of spanning two calendar years – but that was believed to be dependent on whether a second race in the United States could be confirmed.
Plans to have a race in Los Angeles continue to be discussed but a deal for a race around one of the city’s stadiums is understood to not be likely until at least 2025.
After Mexico the schedule is likely to move on to Riyadh at the end of January before visiting Hyderabad and Cape Town in February and Sao Paulo in March.
Both of these races are intended to be part of the calendar although they are likely to appear as TBCs to apply pressure on the local promoters. It remains unclear if the promotional structure of the events will change for 2024.
Should Tokyo be confirmed, a date of March 30 is believed to be the likely option for the first ever Formula E race in Japan, before the Rome E-Prix is set to return to its traditional mid-April date – it will take place in July this year.
A fourth E-Prix on the full Monaco Grand Prix Formula 1 track will take place on April 27 before a double-header in Berlin two weeks later.
This could be the one direct clash between Formula E and the World Endurance Championship, reviving an old headache for the two series that have always had a degree of driver overlap. The WEC’s 6 Hours of Spa was confirmed last week as occurring on May 11, meaning that several drivers will be compromised in one of the world championships.
Malaga’s FE debut could get rubber stamped for May 25, before the third Jakarta E-Prix takes place on June 8/9.
Should that Malaga deal not be completed, a return to Seoul could be possible as the local promoter is keen to once again host a race in the South Korean capital.
The schedule is likely to conclude with races in Portland and London from late June to mid-July.
