Formula E is preparing for its biggest technical and broadcast reset yet. Season 13 will introduce the 600kW GEN4 car, a record 21-race calendar, new events at COTA, Brands Hatch and Zandvoort, a new E-PrixUnleashed race format and Disney+ coverage across 100+ territories from the opening round in December.
Any one of those changes would be significant. Taken together, they make the 2026/27 ABB FIA Formula E World Championship look less like a routine new season and more like a relaunch of what electric single-seater racing can be.
The most important change for many viewers may also be the simplest: Formula E will become much easier to watch.
Disney+, ESPN and Formula E have signed a multi-year agreement that makes Disney+ the championship’s global streaming home from Season 13. Formula E says the agreement spans 144 territories, while its current viewing guide confirms Disney+ will carry every practice session, qualifying session and race live across more than 100 participating territories, alongside previews, reviews, highlights, analysis, behind-the-scenes programming and full race replays.
For the UK, Disney’s own announcement confirms Formula E will be available through Disney+ from the 2026/27 season. That removes one of the barriers that has arguably held Formula E back from casual motorsport viewers: having to work out where a particular race weekend is being shown before they can even watch it.
Disney+ could change how people discover Formula E
Formula E has never lacked technical ambition. What it has sometimes lacked is the sort of effortless visibility enjoyed by championships that live in one obvious place for an entire season.
That changes when Season 13 begins.
Instead of Formula E being something viewers have to actively search for, Disney+ puts the championship inside a platform millions of households already open for films, television and sport-related content. In the United States, Formula E will be available through both Disney+ and ESPN+.
The significance is not that streaming itself is new. It is the combination of scale, consistency and discoverability. A viewer who already pays for Disney+ can move from seeing Formula E promoted on the service to watching practice, qualifying, the race and post-race material without needing another subscription or a separate broadcaster hunt.
Formula E’s official Ways to Watch page says Disney+ will sit alongside local free-to-air, pay-TV and digital broadcast partners where those deals continue, rather than replacing every existing route to the championship.
GEN4 is the performance jump Formula E has been building towards
The streaming deal matters even more because Disney+ will arrive at exactly the same time as Formula E’s fourth-generation race car.
GEN4 represents the largest performance step in Formula E’s history. According to Formula E’s official GEN4 technical breakdown, the car produces 450kW in standard race trim and as much as 600kW in ATTACK MODE.
Maximum regenerative braking rises to 700kW, usable race energy increases to 55kWh and Formula E says more than 40% of the energy used during a race can be recovered through regeneration. The quoted top speed is 335km/h, or 208mph, while 0–100km/h takes approximately 1.8 seconds.
Active all-wheel drive is available throughout the race, rather than being restricted to selected phases, while the car also introduces different high- and low-downforce aerodynamic configurations.
- Race power: 450kW
- ATTACK MODE: up to 600kW
- Regenerative braking: up to 700kW
- Usable race energy: up to 55kWh
- Top speed: 335km/h / 208mph
- 0–100km/h: approximately 1.8 seconds
- Drivetrain: active all-wheel drive
- Energy recovered: more than 40% through regeneration
This is not simply a faster version of GEN3 Evo. The larger power envelope, active AWD and aero flexibility allow Formula E to change the sporting format as well as the car itself.
E-PrixUnleashed gives GEN4 somewhere to stretch its legs
Formula E will also introduce a new format on double-header weekends.
The established 45-minute E-Prix remains, using the low-downforce specification, eight minutes of ATTACK MODE and mandatory PIT BOOST. Alongside it comes E-PrixUnleashed, a shorter 30-minute race designed to showcase more of GEN4’s outright performance.
The Unleashed format uses the high-downforce configuration, six minutes of ATTACK MODE and no PIT BOOST. Formula E describes it as a faster, less energy-constrained complement to the strategy-heavy traditional E-Prix.
That distinction could be important. One of Formula E’s strengths has always been energy management, but it can also make races difficult for new viewers to read. A shorter event built around the car’s performance ceiling gives the championship a second type of spectacle without abandoning the energy strategy that makes the main E-Prix distinctive.
Brands Hatch, COTA and Zandvoort are a deliberate change of direction
GEN4 is also reshaping where Formula E races.
The updated Season 13 calendar contains 21 races and introduces three high-profile venues: Circuit of The Americas in Austin, Brands Hatch in the UK and Zandvoort in the Netherlands.
Formula E says the move towards established permanent circuits reflects the additional performance of GEN4. The championship is not abandoning street racing — Monaco, Tokyo, Jeddah and other city-based events remain central to the schedule — but the car now has the speed to justify circuits where high-speed corners, elevation and longer sequences can expose more of its potential.
Brands Hatch is particularly interesting from a UK perspective. Formula E’s London event moves away from ExCeL and heads to the Kent circuit on 29–30 May 2027. The undulating layout, blind crests and fast direction changes should give GEN4 a very different challenge from the stop-start nature traditionally associated with Formula E.
COTA joins on 6 February 2027, giving Formula E a circuit already familiar to Formula 1 and World Endurance Championship audiences, while Zandvoort arrives as a double-header on 18–19 June.
Season 13 begins with a Jeddah double-header on 18–19 December 2026 before visiting Mexico City, Austin, Miami, São Paulo, Sanya, Monaco, Berlin, Brands Hatch, Zandvoort, Madrid, Shanghai and Tokyo.
The GEN4 grid is changing too
The car and calendar are not the only major changes.
Opel joins the Formula E grid for the start of the GEN4 era, while Fortescue Zero is set to take over the Penske operation and run as a Jaguar-powered customer team, subject to the necessary approvals.
We recently covered that change in detail in our Fortescue Zero and Penske Formula E report. It gives Season 13 another useful thread: the teams and manufacturers will be adapting to a car that changes not only peak performance, but also the way power delivery, regeneration, aerodynamics and race strategy interact.
That is where Formula E remains particularly relevant beyond motorsport. The championship is still a development environment for batteries, power electronics, software, charging and energy management — areas that increasingly define modern road EVs.
Why this season feels bigger than a normal regulation change
Motorsport championships regularly introduce new cars, new calendars and new broadcast agreements. Formula E is unusual because all three are arriving together.
GEN4 answers one criticism by delivering a substantial increase in speed and power. The revised calendar gives that car circuits better suited to exploiting it. E-PrixUnleashed creates a format specifically intended to show what the new machinery can do. Disney+ then puts the result in front of a much broader potential audience.
None of that guarantees Formula E suddenly becomes a mainstream rival to Formula 1, nor does it need to. The more useful question is whether the championship becomes easier to understand, easier to find and more compelling to watch.
Season 13 gives it a stronger answer to each of those questions than Formula E has had before.
Tech Torque Verdict
Formula E’s 2026/27 reset is much bigger than the arrival of one faster race car.
GEN4 provides the performance: 600kW at full attack, active all-wheel drive, 700kW regeneration and a 335km/h top speed. Brands Hatch, COTA and Zandvoort give that hardware circuits where it can breathe. E-PrixUnleashed gives the championship a shorter format designed to show more of the car’s outright pace.
Disney+ may be the piece that connects all of it to a larger audience.
For viewers already interested in EV technology or motorsport but who have never built Formula E into their regular weekend routine, having the championship sitting inside an existing streaming subscription removes a significant layer of friction.
That makes Season 13 one of the most important points in Formula E’s development so far. The technology is stepping up, the tracks are changing and the championship will be easier to watch. From December, we will find out whether those pieces come together on track.
For more electric-motorsport coverage, read our report on Pascal Wehrlein’s second Formula E world title and our look at GEN4’s UK public debut at the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed.
