As the 2023/24 Formula E season comes to an end, plans are already in motion for Season 11’s calendar.
Pascal Wehrlein edged out Mitch Evans at the final race of the season to become last year’s champion by just six points.
Following the season’s grid, there have been several driver changes on the Formula E grid for 2024/25, with only a handful of seats left to be confirmed.
Season 11’s calendar has all but one slot confirmed, with FE believed to have a new country ready to host an event. According to a report by The Race, these plans look to have been stopped in their tracks.
Thailand ePrix plans at risk of cancellation
The report details that FE was looking to host a race in Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.
It states that race makers had visited Chiang Mai in May and June and had plotted out the track. Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds met with the country’s then-prime minister Srettha Thavisin in Paris last March.
Seeing the growth of electric vehicles in the country and the Thavisin’s plans for sustainability, Thailand had been set to be the ‘to-be-confirmed’ slot on the 2024/25 calendar on 8th March, despite FE not disclosing the event.
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Thavisin has now left his post as prime minister “after the country’s constitutional court decreed that he bypassed ethical rules over cabinet appointments in his government.”
Subsequently, Paetongtarn Shinawatra was appointed two weeks ago. This change in political power is said to have “significantly reduced the chances of Chiang Mai hosting a race” and has left FE ‘scrambling’ to replace it.
What must Formula E do now Thailand is uncertain?
With Thailand now looking a huge uncertainty, FE are left in a difficult situation with how to fill the last spot on the calendar.
With all the other events filled out, FE faces a challenge to keep the calendar the same number of events – 11 countries and 16 races – as the 2023/24 season.
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With no event currently in the slot, there is a nine-week gap in the schedule, which the category cannot afford to have. Last season’s seven-week gap between Sao Paulo and Rome was poorly received by the drivers and teams following the cancellation of the Hyderabad ePrix.
FE may have to rejig the calendar or bump one event up to a double-header in an attempt to close up the lengthy gap in the calendar.