"Hope for a quick & fair solution" - Formula E return to India also depends on legal investigation

In India, investigations are currently underway into the alleged illegal release of public funds for the subsequently cancelled 2024 Hyderabad E-Prix, which was preceded by a change of government in the state of Telangana, as a result of which the second Formula E race in Hyderabad was cancelled. Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds is hoping for an early end to the legal investigation.

Despite a valid contract, Formula E had to cancel a race scheduled for 10 February in Hyderabad at the beginning of January 2024: The authorities did not fulfil the agreement to hold a second race after a change of government following elections in the run-up to the race.

Following the cancellation, an investigation was launched in early 2025, with the Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau now seeking to re-interrogate the Indian party Bharat Rashtra Samithi ("Association for India") and its incumbent leader, Kalvakuntla Chandrashekar Rao. Rao, along with two other people, is accused of being involved in the illegal release of the funds. The recipient of the payments was allegedly Formula E Operations. The money presumably flowed as part of an out-of-court settlement with Formula E, which had previously reserved the right to take legal action for breach of contract.

"Without saying too much, there's a case going on in Hyderabad, but not a case against us," explains Dodds to RacingNews365. "First of all, if you go back to that, that was a massively disappointing situation for us. We had a contract in place to put on a race, and they withdrew from the contract, so we were left without a race at very late notice. There are now allegations within Hyderabad itself, and the state of Telangana, about the process that was followed on their side for that, so hopefully they'll resolve that quickly."

"We still have ambitions to be racing in India"

Although Formula E is not directly involved by the legal dispute in India, the mere fact that legal instances are dealing with the cancelled Hyderabad E-Prix has implications for a potential return of the racing series to the world's most populous country with almost 1.5 billion people.

"We still have ambitions to be racing in India, and negative press and PR around the process over there, it's not particularly helpful for us," he continues. "We would rather it was resolved quickly and fairly but from our side, we're absolutely crystal clear that we had a robust contract in place with Hyderabad to go there and race, and they breached it."

It remains to be seen if and when the electric series will return to India. However, a race seems realistic at the earliest in 2027 - the first season with the significantly faster and more powerful Gen4 cars.