Quote:
Originally Posted by Greem
They've already made steps to stop using the term 'engine' by referring to things as a Power Unit.
As Armco says, it's almost certain that the drive will be from electric motors (rather than 'engines'), but what's up for discussion and is really really interesting if you're an engineering or science nerd is what the power source will be.
By that I don't mean whether the cars themselves will carry lithium battery packs (or carbon nanotube batteries, or some other exotic technology that we don't have yet) but where does the power to drive the motors come from?
Could be on-board hydrogen fuel cells, could be solar, could be wind, could be coal/petrol/gas (stranger things have happened), could be nuclear, could be we have a Norwegian GP powered by hydro-electricity 
There's all manner of untapped potential sponsors if F1 starts looking at it from the full lifecycle of the car and energy source. It'll be interesting, that's for sure.
All that said... I don't think F1 will be in the vanguard of these technologies; I think it'll lag behind. |
His idea is very interesting, but for that to happen Formula 1 must change its mentality and open to allow all types of engines without the need to focus on a single style as happened in the last 20 years.
Why does it have to be only a 1.6 V6 turbo? Imagine how interesting it would be to have the V4 2.0 turbo of the Porsche 919 in the McLaren or the Red Bull. Why not an atmospheric V8, V10 or V12 too? Hand to hand with the turbo like in the 80s.
Even Honda with its disastrous current performance could turn to its NRE 4 in line 2.0 of the SuperGT or the V6 2.2 turbo of Indy Cars that perhaps could work better than the current engine.