Formula E built a 600kW car too big for the street circuits that made it. Its record 21-race calendar moves to Austin, Zandvoort and Brands Hatch..
Formula E and the FIA confirmed a record 21-race calendar for 2026-27, the championship's 13th season, ratified at the June 23 World Motor Sport Council. It is the series' largest schedule, up from 17 races, across 13 cities, and it is headlined by a first visit to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin on February 6, 2027.
The GEN4 car is 87kg heavier and 90mm wider than the Gen3 Evo it replaces, and that size forced the expansion. With 600kW of power, the equivalent of over 815 horsepower, and active all-wheel drive, it is the most powerful machine Formula E has built, and the series has had to add permanent circuits to give it room the tightest street venues cannot.
London's ExCeL, the indoor-and-outdoor venue that hosted the season finale, was judged too cramped for the GEN4 car, so the UK round moves to Brands Hatch on a multi-year deal. CEO Jeff Dodds told The Race the series weighed Silverstone too, but chose Brands Hatch in part to carve its own identity away from a circuit that already hosts Formula 1 and the WEC. Zandvoort joins as the third new permanent track.
Two races in America
Austin gives Formula E two United States rounds in a single season for the first time since its inaugural 2014-15 campaign, alongside a returning Miami round in February. COTA will run on its NASCAR oval-and-infield configuration as round four, the centre of a continental American leg that opens in Mexico City in January and ends in Sao Paulo in March.
Dodds visited COTA chairman Bobby Epstein three years ago to walk the track, and the two decided the Gen3 cars were not right for it and waited for GEN4. "Austin's always felt good for us: vibrant, growing city, focus on technology and innovation," Dodds told Motorsport.com, framing the move as a US flagship on a permanent circuit rather than another one-off street date.
The new sprint format
Eight double-header weekends add a second race format, the "E-Prix Unleashed," a 25 to 30 minute sprint that runs the GEN4 car at a continuous 450kW. "From the moment the lights go out, you get to see 450kW, high downforce, you get to see these cars flat out," Dodds told Motorsport.com, with the second race of each weekend staying the traditional energy-managed E-Prix. One weekend now shows two extremes of the same car.
Jeddah opens the season on December 18 with a night double-header before Christmas. Formula E has prepared alternatives for the slot, Dodds told The Race, after Formula 1 dropped its own 2026 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix amid regional conflict, though he said the series is "extraordinarily optimistic" it will race there.
Alberto Longo, the series co-founder, framed the calendar as regional blocks rather than a globe-hopping scramble, an American leg in winter and a five-venue European run from May into late June, a clustering he said keeps freight down as the schedule grows. It is the sustainability argument Formula E has made since it raced only in city centres, now stretched across a 21-race season.
Tokyo closes the season on July 24 and 25, a week later than this year's date. The GEN4 calendar will test whether a series built on tight city streets can fill a season of full-speed permanent venues without losing the character that set it apart.