Apart from the GEN4 cars as pure designs and also their obvious upgrade in power, handling and efficiency, the most obvious changes that will be seen in Formula E this coming season will be where they race. The circuits.
While it is true that of the 13 venues for the 2026/27 season 10 are well-known to Formula E, while just three – Brands Hatch, COTA and Zandvoort – are completely new, the FIA and Formula E Operations have been working tirelessly on ensuring the optimum ‘dancefloor’ for the ‘dancers’ is provided, shined and polished.
Since the beginning of the GEN4 project the FIA has had simulation models of the tracks and how the faster cars can race around them safely and entreatingly.
But the backdrop to these studies has been the fundamental changes to Formula E in its moving away from the pop-up city centre tracks, that were limiting and expensive, to the ‘Jarama model’ of challenging circuits that can be revitalised for GEN4 racing.
“You’ve seen the shift, the progressive shift from full street circuits to more and more conventional circuits,” the FIA’s Deputy Director for Sport and Head of Racing, Benoit Dupont, told Formula E Notebook recently.
“There’s a reason for that. We know that the performances of the GEN4 cars are going to demand more from the circuit, so what we’ve done is that we worked a lot with the manufacturer also to refine our model, and we went through a lot of simulation for all the known circuits and all the potential circuits that we are going to, and we study them around three key areas.”
These are: Safety, technical assurance and ‘raceability’.
“If there is a problem, will the driver get hurt? That’s the important question. So, we could have more tech pros, more runoff, wider tracks,” reckoned Dupont.
“The second layer is from a technical standpoint what can the battery and the new definition of the car withhold. There were some limitation from GEN1. There were less limitations in GEN2, less limitations in GEN3, and we have even less limitations in GEN4 on bigger circuits.
“But we will still have to add some chicanes. Sometimes you will see this, this year, to make sure that we can have a correct usage of the battery, and to avoid some side effects on the sporting side, like too much pack racing effects.
And then the all-important ‘raceability’. GEN4 will see wider cars, bigger cars, more powerful cars on some smaller tracks. That could create problems, because frankly it did at some tracks in GEN3, notably at Sanya and Tokyo.
“It wouldn’t be safety problems because we would have safe proof as much as we can based to the regulations,” adds Dupont.
“But where you can get a lot of contact, for example, in terms of racing, that’s not the outcome we want. So, there are some circuits that are a bit trickier.”
The Monaco standard
The FIA often use Monaco in their simulation analysis, and the Principality in one way is unique but actually in others, certainly from a Formula E perspective, it is almost the ideal Formula E track and has consistently proved to be a great racing venue. Clearly, for many reasons this has to continue in GEN4.
“I mean, it’s the same as bringing Formula One to Monaco, as we all know that it’s difficult to race in Monaco (for F1), and to have a proper race,” said Dupont.
“It’s not the case in Formula E because the format is quite different. But we will have our Monaco’s also next year, where we will try to compensate that as much as we can by widening wherever we can, making it a bit less tight on some corners.”
Dupont and his team work closely with several experienced drivers on these issues, notably champions Pascal Wehrlein and Oliver Rowland. Their input is crucial.
“They are professional and they have quite a good feedback on all these aspects,” alludes Dupont.
“So, first of all, when they don’t feel safe, even though we tell them, ‘if you crash here, you’re not going to get more than ‘X’ G impact, and you’re safe, they will say ‘yeah, but I don’t want to crash here.’
“We have to take that into consideration. But on the other end, take also their consideration about, for example, the chicane may be way too tight, etc.
“Basically, we have shifted from a Grade 3 to a Grade 2. So, it’s quite a lot of investment also from the promoter side to make sure that the circuits where they want to go to.”
