Yet another Formula E race goes belly-up

The wheels are falling off Formula E because the business model is not sustainable. Would you pay money to watch silent race cars? We didn’t think so.

Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante announced that the city is canceling July's season-ending Formula E race, citing financial mismanagement by event organizers and the city's previous administration that would cost taxpayers more than $30 million dollars.

Plante said “We have worked very hard to make an informed decision about the future of the Formula E [race] in Montreal, in the best interest of the [people]."

"When we took office we immediately started looking into the Formula E file. What we discovered was not only troubling, it was shocking. It became pretty clear as early as May 2017 that we were heading towards a financial fiasco."

"Upon our arrival [in office], we very quickly found enormous challenges…[of which] the previous administration was fully aware," she said.

"We had 3 options in mind: moving the race to the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, building a temporary race track somewhere else, taking a one year break in order to clean the house and work on a better business model," she said.

‘My administration is willing to take risks and to invest money to promote Montreal, to attract international events, but not without a serious business case. The administrators of Formula E told me they couldn't bridge the gap for 2018 because they are accountable to their stakeholders, I reminded them that we are accountable to the people of Montreal.

"This is where we draw the line. Formula E will not return to Montreal in these conditions."