Ellipse of minimum area, circumscribing n circles

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I was solving a problem based on ellipse of minimum area that circumscribes 2 circles of equal radii that touch each other and found this.
Here, we can clearly see that for a certain amount of equal circles, the circumscribing ellipse tends to circle. I tried to find a general formula for n, i.e. the number of such circles, but I am unable to start solving by taking ellipse equation as:
C = $\dfrac{x^2}{a^2}+\dfrac{y^2}{b^2}=1$.
How should I take circle equation?