FE Boss on venues: “Measuring costs and returns” / System E

The most powerful and fastest cars of the third generation have overtaken Formula E from city tracks like Rome. But is the growing number of “real” tracks a sign that the original concept of bringing FE to cities and directly to fans is outdated? There are different statements from those involved. “We want to preserve the identity of FE and racing in the city,” says FE co-founder Alberto Longo, “but the technical development of the cars makes it impossible to run some of the courses that were used before. For the faster Gen3 cars, there is no future of these tracks for safety reasons. But racing in big city centers remains our DNA. Racing Gen3 cars on tracks in the first season – that’s unimaginable today,” says Jeff Dodds, who has been CEO for ten months one.

And Dodds addresses another important issue: cost. “Recently we had our first race in Tokyo. For the first time, all roads in an important area were closed for a car event. This happened in one of the most expensive cities in the world, which required a lot of investment for us. Driving permanently it is cheaper. So we have to weigh the costs and returns. We are only nine years old as a racing series and we have to make sure that we are growing in the right direction. The focus must be on exciting races,” explains the former official British government.

Dodds and Longo dismiss the fact that there is no calendar, not even a tentative draft, for the eleventh season ahead of the sixth and seventh races of the season: “We receive requests every week from higher authorities about new venues – from members of governments, governors, mayors of big cities. They are asking about conditions, deadlines for decisions and more details. But everything that has been said so far is speculation. There is still no agreement on the calendar for the eleventh season,” explained Brit. The calendar proposal must first be approved by our board before being submitted to the FIA,” added the Spaniard.

However, there are rumors that the eleventh season will start in Sao Paulo in mid-December 2024. The new one will be Los Angeles and Silverstone (instead of London ExCel), and there should be a second location in the United States as the final in mid-July. Jakarta should return. Berlin would again have a double at the beginning of April.

And about the current location, Misano Adriatico, Longo says: “We were welcomed here with open arms.” The Simoncelli course can stay if there isn’t a complete disaster of spectators at the weekend…

All Formula E 2024 races will be broadcast live on ServusTV, this weekend from 2:50 pm in Austria on the linear channel ServusTV and on the streaming platform News TV On (here also both qualifying sessions starting at 10:20 am). In Germany, ServusTV broadcasts linearly on DF1 and digitally on ServusTV On, df1.de as well as via speedweek.com and ServusTV Motorsport on MagentaTV. Daniel Goggi and expert Daniel Abt comments.