Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds has said that the all-electric championship is “regularly” in contact with the city of Cape Town about a potential future return.
The legislative capital of South Africa staged its own E-Prix for the first and only time in Season 9, having scrapped its initial debut due to the Covid pandemic.
Despite the success and popularity of the event, the costs to host the race supposedly proved too much of a strain on the city, seeing it drop off the calendar in both Seasons 10 and 11.
However, the country’s government has opened-up an ‘expression of interest’ process for potential hosts for a Formula 1 race, having not hosted a Grand Prix since 1993.
Its previous home at Kyalami has been mooted, as well as a Cape Town race, with a potentially similar layout to the one FE used.
Asked by Motorsport Week if F1’s potential interest in returning would prove to be a problem for Formula E, he said that the sport keen to return in either case.
“The reality is, we’ve only ever been on urban tracks really in the past,” he said. “[In] Formula 1, every new track Formula 1 have added has been an urban track, so whether it’s Miami Hard Rock, Las Vegas, they add an urban style track or a built circuit, so we would like to go back to Cape Town at some point.”
Dodds also said that, like F1, FE would be keen to discuss the possibility of a race in another part of Africa.
“We definitely would like to be in Africa, whether it’s Central Africa or whether it’s South Africa.
“Cape Town is a good option for us. I don’t think it, I don’t think it makes any difference for us, because I think we’ll be talking to clearly different promoters, different locators, so I don’t think it, in reality, it makes any difference for us.”
Thailand’s Formula E debut looking less likely after 2025 race cancelled
Dodds also indicated that the likelihood of Thailand eventually hosting an E-Prix is dwindling.
A race was slated to make its debut this season, in March, but a change in government saw it axed from the final calendar, which left Dodds with the idea of forming the Evo Sessions influencer event during the month instead.
The race would have been FE become the first four-wheeler racing series to race in the country, but now the new government is having conversations with F1, leaving FE out in the cold.
But Dodds confirmed that whilst the new Thai government has gone quiet on them, it is communicating with Cape Town often.
“We had an exciting opportunity with the former regime in Thailand,” Dodds said. “When he [former Prime Minister Sthretta Thavsin] left, their conversations kind of stopped with us and they obviously started conversations with Formula 1.
“We’re talking to Cape Town very regularly, we’re not talking to Thailand very regularly, not at the moment anyway, so I think maybe they’re slightly different situations.”
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