Formula E Considers Races In Birmingham To Replace Montreal Round (Update)

Race after race after race fails due to low ticket sales. Fans have almost zero interest in watching silent race cars. If electric race cars are the future, motorsports has no future.

UPDATE New York will host the final round of this year's Formula E championship after series organizers opted not to replace the ditched Montreal event.

The respective cities both joined the schedule in 2016/17 with each event hosting two races, and Montreal installed as the season finale.

The approach was set to be repeated in 2017/18, but Montreal's newly-elected mayor scrapped the event, amid criticism from locals, speculation over misused finances, and low ticket sales.

A proposal to shift the event from the center of the city to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve was a no-go, with the island venue set to start construction work immediately after the Canadian Grand Prix.

As a result, Formula E will not replace the two-race round, with New York now installed as the season finale in mid-July, and the calendar reduced from 14 to 12 races.

It is the second major in-season calendar change after officials brought back the Punta del Este event to replace the cancelled Sao Paulo round.

Formula E crowds are too small to support flying a series all over the world

01/16/18 Formula E has evaluated "taking racing back to Birmingham, England" for the first time since the 1990 Superprix, as it considers possible replacements for its canceled Montreal round, according to Scott Mitchell of MOTORSPORT.

The series has yet to decide whether it will replace the Montreal doubleheader, which was axed by the city last month, but a call "should be made during a board meeting early this week."

Any new event "would not take Montreal's July 29-30 date and slot in at the end of June instead," making the July 16-17 doubleheader in N.Y. the season finale.

A race in Birmingham has been "seriously tabled."

Formula E has been without a race in Britain since the second London ePrix in '15. Its original five-year deal with Battersea Park "had to be scrapped after just two events because of a dispute with locals." MOTORSPORT