We mostly know what Formula E's bold new Gen4 car will look like. But how will it race, and what will the race format look like, this time next year?

The details of this are being looked into now and will continue to be simulated and honed in the early phase of 2026 before being written into the sporting regulations. In that regard, it's too early to be definitive but that didn't stop the rumour mill starting to whirl away in Sao Paulo last week.

The Gen4 car will bring a fresh level of performance to Formula E in a year's time and will inevitably warrant some tweaks to the race format.

On one level, Formula E is still in its infancy as a championship. While it has been weaned on experimental elements - such as the derided FanBoost, and the much more digestible Attack Mode and PitBoost initiatives - it also at the same time craves acceptance as a credible, grown-up sporting brand.

Combining those two traits and ambitions is not easy and its focus on keeping elements of innovation while continuing its sporting maturity is a key focus, according to its CEO, Jeff Dodds.

"My only ask of the team is I really want to let us showcase the car to its fullest potential," says Dodds.

"And yes, that's partly about where we race it but it's also about the format under which we race the car.

"So, I want the cars to be able to stretch their legs and show people what it can do at the top speed. I want it to be able to show people what can happen from an overtaking point of view with close-combat racing, and I want it to obviously show that blistering acceleration. I want the car to be the star in this show.

"We haven't landed on it yet but there's certain elements we love. We really love our qualifying format, so we might make some small modifications to qualifying but not upset what I think is a really cool duels format."

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Meddling with Attack Mode is not thought to be under consideration, either, although slight modifications around how long it is used for and the tranches of use are being simulated.

"In the race itself, I think Attack Mode works really, really well, so I think it would be unlikely that we do too much to disrupt the bit of Attack Mode that works really well," adds Dodds.

The FIA has been flat-out completing the initial build and settling of the Gen4 project. This was a crucial early phase that had to be managed well and completed. Extra resources were deployed to it after the less-than-satisfactory formative days of the Gen3 era in 2022 and 2023, when the entire programme started to creak and rattle ominously.

Gen4 already feels much more secure and, with 12 months left until those cars are racing, the emphasis is now on the manufacturers developing their cars and the FIA and Formula E Operations polishing the show.

Practically, the FIA is detailing the technical parameters available now to inform any changes to how races or indeed qualifying may look. But the feeling at present is that it is the races will have a few improvements for Gen4.

"We have to define such things like the Attack Mode power, the lift-off quantities, linked to one other parameter you may have missed, the track layouts and which type of track we will race in Season 13 [2026-27]," the FIA's Formula E technical manager, Vincent Gaillardot, told The Race at this season's Sao Paulo season opener.

"We will try to give the maximum flexibility in terms of validation, so the average power and an operating window for the sporting format which is as large as possible.

"But there are always some limitations too. The final call is still not done yet and we're still capturing a few things. We have asked manufacturers to perform some specific tests and simulations. So obviously, we will need to soon define it.

"It's still a work in progress. We have various ideas, and we have a certain envelope of window."

The group test at Monteblanco last month was an important milestone for the Gen4 project as the manufacturers got up and running with the car (although Lola struggled to get its package properly engaged).

But the exploration of more structural sporting simulations and possible formats will come in subsequent tests next year, starting at the Almeira facility in Spain, in mid-January.

"We test, for example, different power levels and part of this flexibility, we talk a lot about the 600kW quality, but we wanted as well to have flexibility on race power, maybe to do some sort of power scheduling or things like that," said Gaillardot.

"We asked James [Rossiter, Formula E's Gen4 test driver] to do a lot of race simulations, and this gives us as well where are the boundaries to ensure a good show, to ensure the balance between the power, the lift, the grip we have with this new car.

"We have a different area to the Gen3. So, we have to find the best one for everybody, and James's input is very valuable for that."