Formula E is outgrowing its city-centre roots, according to CEO Jeff Dodds, as the sport prepares to leave London's ExCeL Centre for the historic Brands Hatch circuit next season.
The fourth generation of Formula E car, due out later this year, is now too fast and too powerful for most of the street circuits on which the series was built, marking a shift away from its novelty image towards proving its technology is the future.
From Child to Teenager
Dodds, who took over the series in 2023, said: "If you took the Gen4 car and transported it back in time, I don't think you could put it on any race track that we raced on in Gen1, because it's too big, too powerful, too fast accelerating. It was a child 12 years ago and needed certain things. It's now a teenager and it needs different things. It's just grown up."
He added: "Yes, Formula E might have lost some of its identity, but it's developed a different identity; one that can get to 100 kilometres an hour in about 1.7 or 1.8 seconds. It's doing different things today."
Praise from F1 Drivers
Five different F1 drivers, including Lando Norris, attended the Monaco E-Prix earlier this year, and the new Gen4 car received positive reviews.
"We've got a lot of drivers there saying nice things, saying this is a beast of a car and people are excited to see it in action," said Dodds. "Of course my ears prick up when I hear that, because I'm like a proud dad. When I hear them say nice things about my child, it makes me feel good."
Moving to Brands Hatch
This weekend's London E-Prix is the final event at the ExCeL Centre, which has been the world's only half-indoor, half-outdoor world championship racing circuit, offering a unique blend of entertainment and sport.
From next summer, the London race will move to Brands Hatch, but Dodds says entertainment will remain central.
"We'll still expect to have music and entertainment, loads of stuff for families to come and do," he said. "It's obviously within proximity of London. But the differences will be that it's a big old racetrack. You're going to see the full Grand Prix circuit, and you're going to see those cars spinning around at maximum speed. And if you know the circuit, you can sit at the top and look at about 60% of the race."
"I think you're going to get a lot of people at Brands Hatch, but we're going to try and retain some of that entertainment around the show. It will be a pure motorsport event with a load of entertainment to make it feel more like Formula E."
Dodds added: "We can do our thing and respect the history of the circuit, but we don't have to do what's happened on the circuit, we can bring our own personality to it. You want to nod to the past. We want to respect that, in the same way as Monaco. They've been racing for 93 years on that circuit, the street circuit, but when we show up we have 200 overtakes, we put on our own show, it's got a load of people come to watch it."
