Jeff Dodds believes that the new power and speed of the Formula E car is the key behind the growth of the sport from street circuits to world renowned racetracks07:30, 15 Aug 2026Formula E is finally growing up, says CEO Jeff Dodds. The all-electric series' entertainment extravaganza at London's ExCeL Centre will be unplugged for the final time today - but only to make way for bigger things at Brands Hatch next season.‌The fourth generation of FE car comes out of the garage later this year and it is now too fast and too powerful for the majority of the city centre street circuits on which the series was built. It marks a significant shift as the sport brushes off concerns it is a novelty, to prove its technology is actually the future.‌Dodds, the ex-Virgin chief who took over the series in 2023, says: "If you took the Gen4 car and transported it back in time, I don't think you could put it on any race track that we raced on in Gen1, because it's too big, too powerful, too fast accelerating. It was a child 12 years ago and needed certain things. It's now a teenager and it needs different things. It's just grown up.‌"Yes, Formula E might have lost some of its identity, but it's developed a different identity; one that can get to 100 kilometres an hour in about 1.7 or 1.8 seconds. It's doing different things today."Five different F1 drivers, including Lando Norris, turned up to the Monaco E-Prix earlier this year - and the new Gen4 car only got positive reviews."We've got a lot of drivers there saying nice things, saying this is a beast of a car and people are excited to see it in action," says Dodds. "Of course my ears prick up when I hear that, because I'm like a proud dad. When I hear them say nice things about my child, it makes me feel good."‌This weekend's London E-Prix is the final tango for the ExCeL Centre. The world's only half-indoor, half-outdoor world championship racing circuit, the unique nature of the venue meant that it has been a perfect home for entertainment to cross over with sport.FE's London race will move to the historic Brands Hatch from next summer - but Dodds says that entertainment will still be the order of the day.‌"We'll still expect to have music and entertainment, loads of stuff for families to come and do," he says. "It's obviously within proximity of London. But the differences will be that it's a big old racetrack."You're going to see the full Grand Prix circuit, and you're going to see those cars spinning around at maximum speed. And if you know the circuit, you can sit at the top and look at about 60% of the race."I think you're going to get a lot of people at Brands Hatch, but we're going to try and retain some of that entertainment around the show. It will be a pure motorsport event with a load of entertainment to make it feel more like Formula E.Article continues below"We can do our thing and respect the history of the circuit, but we don't have to do what's happened on the circuit, we can bring our own personality to it."You want to nod to the past. We want to respect that, in the same way as Monaco. They've been racing for 93 years on that circuit, the street circuit, but when we show up we have 200 overtakes, we put on our own show, it's got a load of people come to watch it."