Formula E expands to sub-Saharan Africa: first Cape Town E-Prix to take place in February – Still two open slots on 2023 calendar
Cape Town has officially been added to the 2023 Formula E World Championship calendar, while Seoul loses its slot on the calendar again due to renovations at the Olympic Park.
This was decided at the FIA World Motor Sport Council (World Motor Sport Council; WMSC) meeting on Wednesday. Thus, the race will be held on February 25, two weeks after the inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix.
The season will begin in 2022 with the now traditional pre-season test at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo in Valencia from 13 to 16 December. There, the twelve teams will test the new Gen3 cars for the first time in public.
The previous draft calendar, agreed at the WMSC meeting in June, still has three empty slots. Of these, one has now been filled with the South African guest event.
The previously decided Cape Town E-Prix was still missing from the calendar in June. Formula E boss James Reigle tells ‘Autosport’ that Cape Town was missing at the time mainly because the organisers wanted to be 100 per cent sure that the event would take place first.
Formula E also still wants to return to the USA. The New York City E-Prix no longer appears on the calendar as the previous event site around the Brooklyn Cruise Terminal is being developed.
Our race location for Round 5 of the 2022/23 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship
Set to be one of the fastest tracks on the calendar, we can’t wait to race on the streets of Cape Town! ⚡ pic.twitter.com/DFIQq3Wfch
– ABB FIA Formula E World Championship (@FIAFormulaE) October 19, 2022
North America is now only represented by Mexico City after the omission of New York and the never held race in Vancouver. The season opener will take place there on 14 January. Vancouver had proved stillborn because the race’s promoter, the OSS Group, could not obtain the necessary permits.
The free slot on 11 March was cancelled and a second race will be held in Berlin on 23 April instead. This leaves an open date of 20 May, which was previously scheduled for the Seoul E-Prix. Formula E is looking around for an alternative event.
For the future, the electric formula series has also signed a memorandum of understanding with Tokyo. It is expected that the race will be held around the “Big Sight” exhibition centre in 2024.
Provisional Formula E calendar 2023
Two races (“double headers”) will be held on all dates over two days.
(13-16 December 2022: Valencia pre-test)
14 January: Mexico City (Mexico)
27/28 January: Diriyya (Saudi Arabia)
11 February: Hyderabad (India)
25 February: Cape Town (South Africa)
25 March: Sao Paulo (Brazil)
22/23 April: Berlin (Germany)
6 May: Monaco (Monaco)
20 May: tba
3-4 June: Jakarta (Indonesia)
24 June: tba
15/16 July: Rome (Italy)
29/30 July: London (Great Britain)