Formula E must look at securing long-term venues to ensure costs don't spiral out of control according to DS Virgin Racing team boss Alex Tai.
The inaugural season of the all-electric racing series opened with an 11-race calendar, but not a single event from the first season features on the upcoming season four calendar, and of the 11 countries on the 2017/18 calendar, three are brand new venues.
Tai believes that is hampering the ability to attract and build long-term relationships with local sponsors, whilst the cost of hosting a race at a new venue is substantially higher than at an existing venue.
"Having stability in the calendar is one of the most important things we can do," said Tai. "This year we've got 14 races in ten destinations, many of them are new destinations and it creates problems logitically.
"One of the fragilities around the series is the enormous cost in putting on the races and when you're putting it on for the first time, you don't have those efficiencies from several years of having done it before.
"So it adds cost and it also means it becomes difficult to sell sponsorship and find local partners. It's very important for us to get some stability, possibly two-thirds or three-quarters of the races.
"It's also good to have those new events and to go to new places, maybe a third or a quarter of the races each year could be new events."
Tai is also keen to see race dates set in stone, like Formula 1, rather than the dates changing between seasons – last year the season began in Hong Kong on October 9, this year it starts on December 2, also in Hong Kong, whilst key races such as Paris and New York have both shifted from their 2016/17 spots by several weeks.
"But it's very important to have a [set] day when we have the Paris race and a day when we know it's going to be the New York race. Then we can start to build consistency around that, and attract the same partners."
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