It was clear from an early stage in the development of the Gen4 Formula E car that the sinuous London ExCeL circuit was going to be just too tight for a purposeful showcase of the new quicker and more spectacular era starting at the end of 2026.

The ExCeL has served Formula E well and recovered from an initial pandemic inspired false-start to become the natural home for the season finale in three of the five seasons in which it has run races in its quirky part-indoor venue.

Brands Hatch had been part of some peripheral discussions with Formula E as long ago as 2016 when it became clear that a few local residents didn’t want the event on their home patch at its original UK home in Battersea Park.

From Brands Hatch’s perspective the allure of Formula E accelerated as quickly as the Gen4 in the last year or so. Silverstone was in contention too, but it's Brands Hatch that's getting the race. A deal was finally concluded last month and is believed to be for at least four editions of the race, up to and including 2030.

Motorsport Vision Ltd (the owner of Brands Hatch) believe that the new venture will bring complimentary benefits for the venue and series, with MSV’s CEO, Jonathan Palmer, telling The Race this week that combining traditional racing fans with Formula E's existing fanbase will be a key part of Brands' attraction.

“What I find particularly exciting and what I am looking forward to is the fact that Formula E have done such a great job over 13 years of its evolution of generating their own distinctive fanbase with this type of leading edge technology,” Palmer told The Race.

But Palmer, whose MSV circuits use electric Hyundai Ioniq 5 safety cars, is very aware that there hasn't been a massive overlap with traditional motor racing - particularly of the type regularly seen at Brands Hatch - for Formula E and that includes the clientele that frequent the races.

So why is now the time to have Formula E at Brands?

“The really exciting bit now is that we're going to be clearly having the original fanbase that Formula E has generated, and we will be following it at London ExCeL this August, but on top of that there is a massive traditional fanbase that we're clearly going to be heavily promoting it to,” outlined Palmer.

“And those people, the hundreds of thousands that come to Brands Hatch, are going to be intrigued to know what these Gen4 cars are like on the Grand Prix circuit that they’ve grown up with and love so much.

“I think that the combination of Formula E and the track is going to make a big boost to Formula E's following in the UK.”

How Brands follows the 'Jarama model'

Brands Hatch, Zandvoort, Monaco and Jarama will constitute the majority of Formula E’s European leg of its biggest ever schedule of races

No, it’s not a 1980 time warp - that was the last year those four venues made up half of a European Formula 1 schedule. But if the Formula E races are half as memorable as those events, Brands Hatch and Formula E can really carve out both racing and an overall event to be revered.

The leafy Kent circuit can attract a crowd. It got 10,000 for a recent British Touring Car media day - a media day! - and 20 years ago a genuine 50,000 rocked up to see what all the A1 GP noise was about. Formula E and Brands will be hitting the promotional trail hard over the next 11 months to ensure something similar can be achieved.

It may seem an unlikely new home for Formula E after the polar-opposite venues of Battersea Park and London ExCeL Arena that have hosted the UK race that's been on the calendar for all bar three of the 12 seasons so far.

But despite Brands' slight dislocation from the big conurbations of London, Formula E’s CEO, promotional driving force and chief noise-maker Jeff Dodds is bullish.

“One of our tenets is urban racing, so we want to be close to urban locations, to big urban locations,” said Dodds.

“I'm sure some people will cynically say it's not London, but in reality it's 30/40 minutes from London. The London Golf Club for instance is next door to Brands Hatch, so therefore you're relatively close to London.

“I think it sets up really nicely for us with that amphitheatre and the whole Grand Prix circuit, where you can almost sit above it and you see the track layout in front of you. Brands is a very interesting and very challenging circuit, and very similar to Jarama in the way that it is set up.”

That Jarama mirror is a good one to hold up. Because it is so far Formula E’s big success of the present season with a big crowd and a big buzz frequenting the Madrid venue back in March.

Zandvoort will put on a big show as well, with a Friday evening race the week before heading off to Jarama. The new-look European leg has had a much-needed injection of innovation.

Brands Hatch, through Formula E’s dressing of the circuit, will lean on the successful 'Jarama model', under which a largely long-forgotten track, that was considered a decent drivers' challenge rather than an out-and-out classic, is given a new lease of life.

The Kentish circuit almost feels like a hidden gem to the international crowd because apart from sporadic Group C, FIA GT, DTM, A1 GP and the forgettable Champ Car race of 2003, it has mostly been at the forefront of domestic racing rather than attracting international eyes ever since F1 left. That is all set to change.

“I think we felt we could make a home of Formula E at Brands Hatch, in a way that it could become our circuit for the foreseeable future, and if you're going to stay somewhere for a long time, you collectively invest in it and turn it into something really, really special,” added Dodds.

Those should be treated as quite lyrical words from Dodds, particularly to race fans all over the world, and not just UK fans and enthusiasts.

What configuration will FE race on?

The answer really is its own configuration. Because Formula E and Brands Hatch are working on subtle modifications of the Grand Prix circuit layout to suit the Gen4 cars requirements to showcase its pace and performance.

That doesn’t mean permanent changes to the historic and revered GP track. What it means is changing within the existing framework of the circuit and its run-off areas to create a modified version of the full circuit.

“We are looking at three enhancements to the circuit,” Formula E’s VP of host cities at FEO, Oli McCrudden, told The Race.

“The analysis of the data that's coming off the Gen4 car on an almost daily basis, as people are testing it, is going into simulations, giving us clear energy management parameters and lap times around race tracks.”

Formula E is believed to be looking at areas around the Pilgrims Drop/Hawthorns/Westfield and Dingle Dell section of circuit (effectively the top left area on the map above) to build in elements of trajectory that will enable more overt regening.

“We can identify three areas that we could do these enhancements, and by that I'm talking about essentially creating an extra, wider runoff area that we could drive through to give us that braking to get the regen area on a couple of turns, maybe something a little bit novel as well,” said McCrudden.

“So, we’re not taking anything away from what is one of the most epic and iconic Grand Prix loop circuits. It's just adding in some elements that are going to make it really, really suitable for us.”