Since the first use of battery-based energy recovery (KERS) in 2009 and the start of the full hybrid era with significant battery power in 2014 F1 has moved from purely naturally aspirated engine power to systems which partially include electrical power.
I’m sure that over this time a lot of the innovation has helped in improving the batteries and systems used in electric and hybrid road cars, but everything has its limits.
The new regulations which came into effect with the Australian Grand Prix this year mean that 50% of the power comes from the internal combustion engine and 50% is electricity from the battery and energy recovery system. The internal combustion engine now uses 100% sustainable fuel, i.e. Biofuel.
The result of these changes to the rules turn F1 into a hybrid energy management sport as much as a racing one:
- Drivers constantly balance harvesting vs deploying energy
- Electric power is now as important as the engine
- Races will depend heavily on who uses their battery smartest, not just who has the fastest car
- Drivers are complaining that qualifying is not now based on who can drive the fastest
This, to me, is all nonsensical.
The development of the new battery systems which are able to go from 100% full to totally empty within 11 seconds serves no useful purpose to man nor beast, and certainly none to standard road vehicles.
Given that it will never practicably be possible to have all road vehicles powered by electricity, wouldn’t it have made more sense to have moved this time to 100% Biofuel?
That would have opened the way to investment in producing more efficient Biofuels, for the benefit of all those motorists for whom electric vehicles would be impractical, and allowed a return to what F1 is intended to be at its core … pure racing.
#F1 #Formula1
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