Formula E, the championship which once billed itself as “electric street racing”, will hold almost half its races on permanent tracks this year.
But Formula 1 is going in the opposite direction. It has added more street tracks to its schedule in recent years and some of its permanent courses may be under threat from new city races. What’s behind these conflicting trends?
When all-electric single-seater series FE was launched 10 years ago its calendar consisted entirely of temporary circuits. In addition to venues visited by Formula 1 (Monaco) and IndyCar (Long Beach and Miami), it took in several entirely new street courses.
Like all championships, FE’s schedule was badly disrupted by the Covid-19 pandemic. In the season before, its roster of tracks remained almost entirely street courses. FE visited 12 circuits in 2019, only one of which was a permanent track: Mexico’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, which has the rare advantage of being situated within a city.
However FE has consistently struggled to put down roots at many of the venues it has visited. Only one city has appeared in all 10 seasons – Berlin – and its second most regular venue is the permanent course which also hosts F1’s Mexican Grand Prix.
To begin with, as FE lost some street tracks, others were found to replace them. But increasingly it has turned its sights to traditional racing circuits.
Italy’s round has moved from Rome (on the site of a mooted F1 race which never went ahead) to Misano this year. The American event, which previously visited temporary tracks in California, Miami and New York, now takes place at the Portland road course used by IndyCar. China has returned to the FE calendar for the first time post-Covid, but at the Shanghai International Circuit where F1 also races instead of the various street tracks used previously.
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As a result FE’s split between road and street races this year is almost half and half – eight to seven respectively. That’s still a considerably higher percentage than F1, where street tracks (not counting parkland courses like Melbourne) account for a quarter of the 2024 schedule. But street races are very much in vogue for F1.
When Liberty Media took over the series in 2017 it set out a plan to increase interest in it by holding races in what it called ‘destination…
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