Monaco has spent more than a century proving that a tiny patch of Mediterranean coastline can occupy an outsized place in motor racing. Now the Principality is making certain that the electric version of the sport remains a big part of that story.
The Monaco E-Prix is set to stay on the Formula E calendar until at least 2031 following an extension of the championship’s agreement with the Automobile Club de Monaco.
There is another change arriving much sooner. The 2027 Monaco E-Prix double-header has been moved forward by two weeks and will now take place on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 May.
Originally scheduled for 15 and 16 May, the races have been shifted following approval of the revised calendar, avoiding a direct clash with the FIA World Endurance Championship’s 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, whose race takes place on 15 May.
For Monaco, however, the more important date may be 2031.
From Experiment To Establishment
When Formula E first arrived in the Principality in 2015, it still felt like the adventurous younger cousin of traditional motor racing.
The cars competed on a shortened version of Monaco’s street circuit and the E-Prix initially returned only every other year.
Much has changed.
Formula E became an annual Monaco visitor from 2021 and subsequently adopted essentially the full Grand PrixTM circuit, sending electric single-seaters through Sainte Dévote, up towards Casino Square, around the Fairmont Hairpin and through the famous tunnel.
The latest agreement removes any remaining sense that Monaco is merely an occasional showcase for the championship. It has become one of Formula E’s permanent headline venues.
There is an interesting symmetry here. Formula 1TM has already secured its own Monaco Grand PrixTM through 2031. The Principality has therefore effectively locked in both its traditional Grand Prix and its electric counterpart to the same horizon.
For a country that has long used motorsport as part of its international identity, that is significant.
Monaco Meets A Very Different Formula E
The timing is particularly interesting because the cars arriving in Monaco in 2027 will represent the biggest performance leap in Formula E’s history.
GEN4 makes its competitive debut during the 2026–27 season.
The new machine produces 450kW in standard race specification and can reach 600kW — more than 800 horsepower — in its most powerful configuration which is ATTACK MODE. It also brings permanent all-wheel drive, considerably greater aerodynamic performance and speeds exceeding 335km/h.
Formula E says the car can accelerate from 0–100km/h in approximately 1.8 seconds and reach 200km/h in only 4.4 seconds.
Monaco has already had a preview.
During the 2026 E-Prix weekend, former Formula 1TM driver and two-time Monaco Grand PrixTM winner David Coulthard took the GEN4 around the streets of Monte-Carlo.
His reaction was striking. Despite his years racing Formula 1TM machinery around the Principality, Coulthard described the GEN4’s acceleration as the greatest he had experienced at Monaco.
In 2027, the professionals will get their turn.
Two Days, Two Different Kinds Of Racing
They will also be racing under a radically altered weekend format.
Formula E is introducing “E-Prix Unleashed” as part of its GEN4 era, giving double-header weekends two deliberately different personalities.
One race will be a 30-minute sprint using the GEN4’s high-downforce configuration and designed to place greater emphasis on outright performance. The conventional E-Prix will last 45 minutes, use the lower-downforce configuration and retain a greater emphasis on energy management and strategy, including the mandatory PIT BOOST.
That could be particularly intriguing in Monaco.
The Circuit de Monaco has always punished mistakes, but Formula E has shown that its smaller cars, energy strategies and ATTACK MODE can produce a very different style of racing from Formula 1TM on exactly the same streets.
Putting the considerably faster GEN4 into that environment adds another unknown.
What began in 2015 as an electric experiment on a shortened circuit has, little more than a decade later, become another established chapter in the Principality’s extraordinary motor-racing calendar.
