F1 Fanatic

I am picking up from the improving F1 series Keith did here.

Lately a lot of new developments emerged in the field of electrical cars, hybrid technology and hydrogen as well.

With London taxis going for hydrogen engines, would this be a future option for F1 as well? Will it work, what about engine noises, will it feel like real racing.

What do you think?

I don’t see the need for F1 to go down this road. The cars may use a lot of fuel and have very poor co2 numbers but I struggle with the fact that there are 24 cars driving 600km 17 times a year. This in total can only equate to 1 road car with reasonable yearly usage. The teams should be greener in transport etc.
The thought of a silent F1 car or an artifically created engine noise is not worth thinking about.

I admit i am all into doing thing efficiently. For me the efficiency of the F1 engines, getting enormous power out of those engines is a real thrill, they get a lot closer to using what is in the fuel than most road car engines.

I understand what you say Rampante, and i am not convinced doing away with combustion would be good. You are right that even if F1 cars would have no emissions at all, it would not make any difference (stopping flying and driving to races would as would optimizing travel in the season, but that’s a different thing).

But i see enormous opportunities for technology development to get these cars to get even more out of it. So i like the principe of KERS and electrical energy supporting with tracktion to have even better cars. Not to help the environment, as that is not the target of racing, but to get them to even more crazy speeds and decelaration.

Driving on electrical engery is not the best idea, it is pretty heavy, batteries have to be changed often and the worst thing is, producing electricity is not a very efficient proces as it stands.

Therefore i think it is exiting to have F1 engineers having a go at hydrogen cells to build racing drivetrains and see if they can make it competative in the next years.

I got the inspiration for this from reading an article on the first London taxis with hydrogen fuel cells hitting the streets before 2012
link: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/hydrogen-fuelled-london-taxi-unveiled/1002798.article?cmpid=TE01P&cmptype=newsletter

I am all for hydrogen fuel cells being used in everyday cars, I have never been a fan of battery powered cars as I feel they harm the environment more than they help it and manufacturers only use them to make their cars look ‘green’.

However all us fanatics know that an F1 car is very clean, apparently a flight from London to Japan emmits more co2 than all the cars in a season. F1′s large carbon footprint doesn’t come from the cars, its more the travelling and there is nothing F1 can do about that.

Having said that, image is everything in F1 and if outsiders looking in think F1 needs hydrogen to stay relevant then I think the FIA will make sure it does so. I, personally, only hope this comes when there isn’t a drop of oil left on earth

Well first, there won’t always be oil. It is a finite recource, it will run out eventually, maybe sooner than you’d think.

An I’m aware that there are natural fluctuations in tempreture, but as someone who has personally spent a fair bit of time studying global warming, it’s fairly unequivocal, the greenhouse effect has been proven true in both labs an the atmosphere, tempreture is on a definate upward trend etc. Lots of historical proof as well. I did wonder before I studied it quite how clear cut the arguments and facts were, but now all I can say is that I’m baffled theres an argument at all, the evidence is so clear and bloody obvious it suprises me anyone can cast doubt on man made climate change any more, you’d almost think there where billion dollar oil coparations and various vested intrests muddying the water or something.

An F1 has to face up to that, I’m also aware of the scale and quantity arguments, I realise that one F1 race, or even twenty doesn’t produce much carbon in the run of things. But it’s the pinacle of the motor industry. An F1 can be an incredbily useful tool in finding the technology the motor industry needs to stay viable once peak oil production is reached, and it’s comming. And people are going to come down harder and harder on F1 if it can’t change, while it doesn’t produce much carbon proportionaly, it’s still a ridiculously inefficient sport in many respects. Why not get them off our backs straight away, an become a pinacle of green technology as well. It will benefit the sport, the man on the street(in his car) and the planet. Everybody wins.

Oil is getting less in excess every minute, even though the rising oil-prices make even more complicated methods at getting to it viable from a profit perspective, bringing higher risks with it (Mexican gulf oil drilling?).
Even so, some experts think we allready passed peak oil production or are very close to doing so in the next few years. Oil will not last, even finding more of it and using less won’t help that.

But i am not pushing for F1 to become environmenally active, i would just like it to prospect good ways of using differing fuels to get more racing as well as challenging engineering in doing so.

The drive train is most important in this and hydrogen fuel could be a good way about it, getting new minds to focus on F1 as a sporting challenge and help the world and interested parties with spin off products/knowledge resulting in revenue generated around the motorsport industry.

That is not about wanting to be “green” nor “tree hugger”, just liking challenges and making sporting succes and money out of doing things more clever than others.

Alcohol is a very viable fuel. As an oenologist by profession it could be an very easy and reasonably clean way forward. Alcohol can be made from just about any organic matter. I still want to smell petrol in the air at a race.