Formula E nearly ‘ran out of money’ — now it’s chasing victory on the Goodwood Hill

“He’s got a car that’s capable of doing something really special up that Hill,” said Formula E CEO Jeff Dodds. Only the series as we know it nearly folded after its first race. 

“Let me share something with you,” Dodds told the audience at FOS Future Lab presented by Randox. “It ran out of money on race two.” One race into its first season, in Beijing in 2014, the world’s newest Championship was effectively broke, saved only when partners and investors — including DHL, ABB, Julius Baer and eventually Liberty Global — “gave it enough oxygen to keep going.”

Alongside Dodds at FOS Future Lab sat Jaguar TCS Racing team principal Ian James and the FIA’s Head of Formula E Championship, Pablo Martino — three men happy to laugh, now, about a series whose drivers once had to hop out of one car and into a second because the battery couldn’t finish a race. Today, Formula E attracts a global audience of over 420 million fans.

From car swaps to the Batmobile

The Gen1 car made about 150 kilowatts. The mid-race car swap was, as James generously put it, “quite an innovative solution”, but one everybody was glad to retire. Gen2, in 2018, doubled the battery capacity, killed the swap and looked so dramatic Dodds still calls it the Batmobile.

It also brought experiments. Attack mode — a temporary power boost drivers collect on track — was new to motorsport and stuck. Fan boost, where fans voted extra power to a favourite driver, did not. “The Championship had the courage to kill it at the right time,” said James.

Quicker off the line than Formula 1

Formula E is now 12, while Formula 1 has been going strong for 76 years, so the series is still very much evolving. Which brings us to the new Gen4 car, testing now and racing from the end of this year.

The numbers deserve a moment: 600 kilowatts in qualifying trim, permanent four-wheel drive, 0–62mph in 1.8 seconds — “30 per cent faster accelerating than a Formula 1 car,” said Dodds — 0–200kph in roughly 4.2 seconds, and around ten seconds a lap quicker than the start of the Gen3 era. Martino, the man who regulates it, is under no illusion: “It’s going to be a rocket.”

The year Formula E launched, about 300,000 electric vehicles were sold worldwide. This year, 20 million. The Championship that once demonstrated batteries could barely last twenty minutes now demonstrates they can outdrag anything on the grid.

At this year’s FOS Future Lab, Formula E is a major partner, not only unveiling the Gen4 car, but giving visitors the chance to set lap times on an AI-powered sim racing rig. Developed in partnership with Google Cloud’s Vertex AI and Gemini, it helps drivers analyse racing data, cut lap times and optimise energy management.

Formula E crews manning the rig were surprised by just how quick the Goodwood crowd was, given most are casual gamers, not e-sports superstars.

A Beach Boys soundtrack

Goodwood got its own preview, twice over. Fernando Barrichello — son of Rubens — took Jaguar’s Gen4 prototype up the Hill after a radio failure forced an improvised fix of headphones and earplugs. It half worked. “As he braked into the first corner,” said James, “he had a Beach Boys song at full volume from the engineer’s iTunes playing all the way up the hill.”

Rubens, unable to attend, had messaged  first to say ‘take it easy’, then again to say ‘actually, you know what you’re doing, you’ll be fine’.

Ticktum’s runs in Formula E’s own development car are the serious business. A Championship car built for street-circuit combat, barely modified beyond tyre compound, sent up a hillclimb it was never designed for. “I think it’s going to surprise people,” said Dodds. Its performance in the Timed Shoot-Out certainly did.

Brands Hatch is coming

The news that got the biggest cheer: next season Formula E races at Brands Hatch, a World Championship returning to the Kent circuit, on the full Grand Prix layout with modifications, after MSV’s Jonathan Palmer personally walked the track to make it work for Gen4.

For Dodds it’s personal. “I grew up eight minutes from Brands Hatch. Six minutes if I was going on a Fireblade.” The Gen4 era also brings a second race format — ‘Unleashed’, a shorter, higher-power sprint at 450 kilowatts designed to let the car off its strategic leash, and this season a title fight that could see three or four drivers arrive at the London finale with a shot at the Championship. “That is unheard of in motorsport,” said Dodds.

Asked to sum up the 12-year journey, Dodds used one Japanese word: kaizen — continuous, never-ending improvement. “Even that’s just the beginning of another phase of our journey,” he said. “Our journey never ends.”

Randox is a global leader in diagnostics, revolutionising patient outcomes through innovative technologies, including its patented biochip technology. This pioneering diagnostic platform allows for the simultaneous detection of multiple biomarkers from a single sample, delivering faster, more accurate, and comprehensive results. Operating in over 145 countries, Randox develops advanced laboratory instruments, high-quality reagents, and innovative testing solutions to improve global healthcare.

Randox Health brings this cutting-edge technology directly to individuals, offering bespoke, preventative health testing programs. With world-class laboratories and personalised health insights, Randox Health enables early detection of a wide range of conditions, helping individuals take control of their health.

Together, Randox and Randox Health are redefining diagnostics and preventative healthcare. For more information, visit www.randox.com and www.randoxhealth.com.

The 2027 Festival of Speed will take place on 15th-18th July 2027, sign up for ticket alerts to make sure you don't miss out. Tickets are available for GRRC Members and Fellows, you can join the Fellowship today.

Photography by Jack Beasley, Lou Johnson and Tom Baigent.