A Formula E return to Sanya for an additional Asian race in the summer of 2026 is believed to be increasingly likely and is expected to be confirmed at October’s FIA World Motor Sport Council.
Formula E issued an 18-race, 12-date calendar in June, which included two ‘to be confirmed’ dates on May 30 and June 20. These are widely understood to be Sanya and Jakarta.
Host city executives have been in advanced negotiations with officials from both cities and The Race understands that recent positive movements have made a return to the island of Hainan in the south China Sea highly probable.
2025-26 Formula E calendar
December 6, 2025: Sao Paulo
January 10, 2026: Mexico City
January 31, 2026: Miami
February 13-14, 2026: Jeddah (double-header)
March 21, 2026: Jarama
May 2-3, 2026: Berlin Tempelhof (double-header)
May 16-17, 2026: Monaco (double-header)
May 30, 2026: TBC (likely Sanya)
June 20, 2026: TBC (likely Jakarta)
July 4-5, 2026: Shanghai (double-header)
July 25-26, 2026: Tokyo (double-header)
August 15-16, 2026: London ExCeL (double-header)
Although Formula E CEO, Jeff Dodds would not specifically name the venues or cities involved, he did tell The Race that "one of the parties we have much more confidence in now, because we're into the flow of financial investment".
That venue is believed to be Sanya, which hosted its only E-Prix in March 2019 - a race that was won by Jean-Eric Vergne for the DS Techeetah team on the way to his second title.
The other event - understood to be Jakarta - was "right at the far end of the negotiation period, we'll know within probably four weeks whether it's going ahead but all of the language around it is very, very positive".
“But I don't want to set any false expectations," Dodds added. "There is nothing worse than putting [an event] on the calendar and taking it off. It's four weeks before we'll know.”
That references a timeframe in which Formula E will complete the deals and then submit venues for the next FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting, which is set for October.
The two TBC dates in May and June are the start of Formula E’s Asian leg, which also encompasses double headers at Shanghai International Circuit in early July and then the third iteration of the Tokyo E-Prix later that month.
Engineering work around the Big Sight venue in Tokyo from April to June has caused the change in Tokyo’s date, which has had the knock-on effect of extending the Formula E season into August - where it will finish with the final London E-Prix races to be held at the ExCeL Arena.
The latest that Formula E has completed a season was in 2022, when the one-off Seoul E-Prix round took place in mid-August.
New European Venues on Horizon
Options for races at Imola, Bucharest, Zandvoort and Barcelona are being looked at by Formula E as it seeks to expand its calendar to 20 races by the first season of Gen4 in 2026-27.
A delegation from the Romanian capital Bucharest was in London last weekend, while talks with soon to be ex-F1 venues Zandvoort and Imola have also taken place.
Barcelona’s legendary Montjuic Park area, which hosted a Grand Prix in the late 1960s through to 1975, is also under consideration for 2027 should civil engineering work around the area be completed.
