Formula E announces calendar update for Gen4 season opener; revised calendar here
Formula E has announced a major change to its calendar for Season 13, the first of the championship's upcoming Gen4 era. The season opener in Jeddah, scheduled for 18 - 19 December, 2026, has been postponed, amidst the ongoing war and conflict in the region.
The Jeddah E-Prix has, for long time, remained under intense scrutiny. The earlier US-Iran conflict had affected several race weekends across championships in the Middle East, with Formula One cancelling weekends in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia in April, and WRC cancelling its finale in Saudi Arabia in November.
The Dakar Rally, which has predominantly run in Saudi Arabia, will also change course for 2027, with the rally commencing in Portugal and ending in Morocco instead.
F1 and Formula 2's upcoming events in Qatar and Abu Dhabi remain under intense scrutiny too, with the latest update featuring no backups in the event of either race weekend being cancelled. MotoGP recently faced immense scrutiny for its outing in Qatar, which even saw Yamaha withdraw all its factory and satellite bikes from the race weekend, out of disagreement with the decision.
A similar situation may have faced Formula E, had they looked to carry on. The USA and UK had already issued advisories against travelling to the region, unless it was essential travel.
This came about in the event of Houthis striking airports in the region, with the latest strikes by the group on Saudi Arabia's King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh killing 17 and injuring over 300 individuals, according to sources.
This risk of Saudi Arabia's airports being vulnerable to strikes was expected to impact the safety of several important team and media personnel, with Jeddah's airport an important transit point for all personnel travelling to the event.
However, Formula E have remained prepared amidst uncertainty. The latest change sees the Jeddah E-Prix shifted from December 2026 to April 2027, taking over the slot held by the Sanya E-Prix on April 16-17, 2027.
Sanya will shift to a date two weeks prior, now taking up a new date on April 2-3, 2027. This becomes the second change made to the calendar, with the Monaco E-Prix weekend brought forward to the first week of May, in order to avoid a scheduling conflict with the World Endurance Championship (WEC).
The resulting change to Formula E's calendar sees Mexico City become the season opener in January, for the first time since Season 10 in 2024. The calendar then goes through the USA for two weekends in Austin and Miami, before heading to São Paulo in March.
Sanya and Jeddah then kick off a short Asian tour before the championship heads to Europe and the UK, before returning to Asia for its season finale.
Pre-season testing remains unaffected, taking place at the Circuito del Jarama from November 16 - 20, 2026.
Formula E Calendar: Season 13
Mexico City E-Prix: January 16, 2027
Austin (COTA): February 6, 2027
Miami: February 20, 2027
São Paulo: March 13, 2027
Sanya: April 3, 2027
Jeddah (x2) - April 16 - 17, 2027
Monaco (x2): May 1-2, 2027
Berlin (x2): May 8 - 9, 2027
Brands Hatch (x2): May 29-30, 2027
Zandvoort (x2): June 18-19, 2027
Jarama (x2): June 26 - 27, 2027
Shanghai (x2): July 10 - 11, 2027
Tokyo (x2): July 24 - 25, 2027
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