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Formula E is aiming to race in at least three destinations across the North America in the near future.
Formula E will return to Portland for rounds 13 and 14 of the 2023-24 Formula E World Championship (Image Credit: @NISMO on X)The popularity of motorsports continues to grow in North America, with Formula 1 in particular enjoying a spike in viewership from the continent.
Records were broken at the most recent Miami Grand Prix; ESPN reported that the main race was the most-watched live F1 race in US television history, with a peak of 3.6 million people tuning in to watch McLaren’s Lando Norris claim his first ever win in the open-wheel series.
The 2024 Formula One World Championship will see another two rounds take place in the USA, with the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas and the Las Vegas Grand Prix scheduled for October and November respectively.
Formula E, the all-electric single-seater racing series, are looking to adopt a similar philosophy by adding more US and Canadian races to their future calendars and boost their audience in America.
Portland is currently the only North American location on the current Formula E calendar, with this year’s E-Prix commencing 29 June 2024 across two rounds. New York has also previously accommodated Formula E machinery among others, but lost its license after the expansion of the nearby Brooklyn Cruise Terminal.
Six cities in contact for future Formula E races
Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds spoke to Front Office Sports about the possibility of more races in the North American continent in future seasons. He has revealed that multiple representatives from cities across the United States have contacted him about the possibility of hosting a Formula E event in the not-so-distant future.
He said: I’m aware of six other cities in North America that have contacted us and we’re in contact with about bringing a race to them in the future.”
Those six cities are Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Detroit, Nashville, and Phoenix. And Dodds is confident that the Formula E calendar will grow to fit at least three of those cities by 2030.
The CEO continued: “I’ll make this up, but let’s say we have one in New York and one in Los Angeles; I think you would then take a view on whether there’s also room for one in the middle of the country or there’s not.
“But, I think, certainly, we move to two quite quickly, and then we see if there’s a place for a third.”
The all-electric series heads to Berlin and Shanghai before returning to the US. Pascal Wehrlein, driving for TAG Heuer Porsche, leads the Drivers’ Championship while Jaguar TCS Racing are first in the Teams’ Championship following Mitch Evans’ victory in the Monaco E-Prix.
Feature Image Credit: @FIAFormulaE on X