After a two-season break, ABB Formula E – the all-electric global street racing championship – is set to return to mainland China, for a debut in the coastal city of Sanya, located on the southern tip of Hainan province. Sanya is one of the series’ three new race venues added this season, along with Ad Diriyah in Saudi Arabia, where Season 5 began last December and Bern in Switzerland, which will host the series in June. 

In Seasons 1 and 2, the championship staged its opening round in Beijing and produced two different winners – Lucas Di Grassi in the first season and Sébastien Buemi in the second. Di Grassi, who is the championship’s most successful driver and who secured a win last month in Mexico City, will be among the favourites for victory, but the competition is certain to be tough. Buemi, who claimed the 2015-16 championship title by the narrowest of margins following a season-long battle with Di Grassi, will race in Sanya as well, along with another 20 rivals in an increasingly tight field.

Those 22 are spread across 11 teams, each vying to win the Season 5 titles, and the intensity of competition between them was shown over the first four races, which produced four different winning drivers, from four different teams. In Sanya, drivers will face 11 turns, with a hairpin bend at Turn 8, over the course of 2.28 kilometers.

The coastal city is well-suited for Formula E, as it is enjoys some of the best air quality in China, making it happily in tune with ABB’s commitment to a future of smarter, more reliable and emission-free mobility. Sanya’s high humidity will, however, pose a challenge for competitors as they conclude the Asia leg of their Season 5 tour.

Ahead lies a swing through a number of great European capitals, before the July season finale in the United States.