Formula E to electrify Goodwood Festival of Speed for the first time as official partner
After more than a decade of street-circuit showdowns from Diriyah to Monaco, the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship is finally heading up the most famous driveway in motorsport.
The all-electric series has confirmed it will make its Goodwood Festival of Speed bow as an Official Partner of the 2026 event, slotting neatly into a theme – ‘The Rivals – Epic Racing Duels’ – that could have been written for a championship built around wheel-to-wheel combat and ATTACK MODE overtakes.
It is, on paper, a meeting of opposites. The Goodwood Festival of Speed is the spiritual home of howling V12s, screaming Group B rally cars and the rich smell of methanol drifting across the West Sussex lawns. Formula E, by contrast, is the silent assassin of modern motorsport – a series that has spent eleven seasons turning electrons into entertainment in some of the world’s great city centres. Putting the two together on the 1.16-mile hill climb feels less like a culture clash and more like a long-overdue introduction.
Every generation on the hill, all at once
The headline act will be a piece of choreography that no other championship in the world can pull off: all four generations of Formula E machinery running up the hill climb simultaneously. GEN1, GEN2, GEN3 and the brand-new GEN4 will share the tarmac in what amounts to a live, moving timeline of how quickly electric single-seater racing has grown up. From the 2014 originals – which still required a mid-race car swap – to a car that will top 335kph, Goodwood’s spectators will be able to track a decade of progress in the time it takes to climb to Lord March’s front door.
Away from the action, fans will be able to inspect the full lineage up close in a dedicated showcase inside the Ballroom Paddock across all four days. Once the earlier cars move to static display, the GEN4 will take centre stage – and rightly so. The new car, which races for the first time in the 2026/27 season, is the most significant technical leap the series has produced since it was founded.
Gen4: faster, fiercer and built for everyone
The numbers behind the GEN4 read more like hypercar territory than city-circuit racer. Top speed climbs to over 335kph (208mph), with 0-200kph dispatched in 4.4 seconds. In ATTACK MODE, the new car delivers a 71% increase in power over its GEN3 predecessor – a step change that, according to Nissan’s Formula E boss, is one of the reasons the London ExCeL finale may eventually give way to a full-fat permanent circuit such as Silverstone.
Just as importantly, the GEN4 is the first Formula E car designed with inclusivity baked into the brief. Power steering arrives for the first time, the cockpit has been ergonomically redesigned and the FIA has signed off on a package intended to widen the pool of drivers capable of competing at elite level. For a championship that has long talked a good game on diversity, this is the engineering to match the messaging.
Why goodwood, why now
Held annually on the 12,000-acre Goodwood Estate, the Festival of Speed has become the world’s biggest moving motor show – a four-day mash-up of past, present and future where Group C Le Mans cars share airspace with hypercars, drift weapons and prototype EVs. Formula E’s timing is sharp. Manufacturer interest in the series is at an all-time high, with Citroën joining for 2025/26, Opel confirmed for the GEN4 era and Porsche set to run two factory teams from 2026/27.
Bringing every generation of car to a venue that draws more than 200,000 visitors a year is a clear pitch to British fans – and to the wider Goodwood audience that has, until now, only really encountered Formula E through the television. According to the official Formula E website, further announcements regarding driver line-ups, guest appearances and specific activation schedules will be released in the coming weeks.
The 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed runs from Thursday 9 July to Sunday 12 July 2026.
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