New F1 rules advise carmakers not to stop using ICE engines | Wilnesh News

If you want to understand the future of car manufacturing, the Formula 1 rulebook is often a good place to start.

Regulations mandating seat belts and crumple zones in racing soon led to their adoption in road vehicles, and the KERS (Kinetic Energy Return) system developed by the team is used to capture and convert the energy lost during braking, enabling hybrid Electric cars, buses and taxis are becoming lighter and more efficient.

But the sport’s new regulations show that automakers aren’t pinning all their hopes on electrification. In 2026, F1 cars will have hybrid engines, with a 50:50 mix of electricity and combustion engines; crucially, the combustion engines will be powered by synthetic e-fuel.

“We want to fight climate change and (synthetic fuels) are one way to do that,” former F1 chief technical officer Pat Symonds told CNBC when he was at F1.

“This is not the same as electrification, and since we started this project a few years ago, more and more people are starting to realize that there is a parallel pathway to decarbonizing transport.”

One of them is Honda, which has announced it will return to F1 in 2026. leave the sport In 2021, “Strive to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.” Another is Audi, which exits the Formula E championship in 2021 and joins F1 in 2026, the same year that the German car company will stop producing new combustion engine cars and only release electric vehicles.

On the surface, it may seem contradictory to invest so much money in developing an F1 engine that will never be ported to a road car, but some believe F1’s automotive partners are hedging their bets on electrification. “No company can take a straight path to sustainability,” Madeleine Orr, assistant professor of sports ecology at the University of Toronto, told CNBC. “If Audi is looking at R&D to increase production of certain products, F1 is What a great way to achieve this.”

One of the products Audi is investing heavily in synthetic e-fuels, which uses regenerative electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which are then combined with carbon dioxide. Currently, e-fuels are too expensive for most road users, but producers point to them as a cleaner alternative for industries such as aviation and shipping that have difficulty accessing electricity.

Some see this as a Trojan horse to undermine the electrification of road vehicles.

Alex Keynes, the climate group’s automotive policy manager for transport and environment, said: “Producing e-fuels is a far less efficient use of renewable energy than powering electric vehicles.”

“These fuels are critical for decarbonizing industries that are difficult to electrify, but the use of renewable energy in vehicles is extremely inefficient compared to battery power.”

Without denying the engineering argument for electrification, proponents of e-fuels reply that this ignores economic realities. Paddy Lowe, a veteran F1 engineer and founder of e-fuel company Zero, told CNBC: “The world doesn’t work on efficiency, it works on the market, and ultimately on price.” “When I charge my electric car, in terms of infrastructure needs, I use the most expensive electricity in the world; not everyone can afford it,” he said.

Car buyers seem to agree. U.S. electric vehicle sales flat in first quarter; in Europe Sales fell 5.2% year-on-year in March as inflation dented the industry’s growth. This may just be a blip in electrification, but it has forced some manufacturers to pause plans with Ford Push to release A new electric SUV will be launched by 2027.

The prospect of increasingly isolationist policies from lawmakers will also weigh on manufacturers. US presidential candidate Trump threatens to eliminate environmental subsidies impose a If he returns to office, electric vehicles will be subject to 100% import tariffs. Meanwhile, Germany’s Free Democratic Party (FDP) has blocked an EU-wide phase-out of cars with internal combustion engines (ICE) after 2035 and is demanding an amendment to allow vehicles using e-fuels. “We in Germany have mastered internal combustion engine technology better than any other country in the world,” the FDP transport minister lamented after issuing the ban. “It makes sense to keep this technology in our hands while some questions about climate-neutral mobility remain unanswered.”

But not all German carmakers support the ban. Mid-2023, Mercedes CEO Ola Kallenius doubles down on efforts Regarding the company’s plan to prioritize the development of electric vehicles, it was pointed out that e-fuels cannot compete with electric vehicles in terms of emissions.

This puts the German manufacturer at odds with F1. At the beginning of 2023, the sport’s senior representatives be understood Meeting politicians in Brussels to explain the benefits of e-fuels and even writing to the office of then-EU Vice-President and Climate Action Commissioner Frans Timmermans opposing a ban on “internal combustion engines” in favor of electric cars, and described this as “a huge one-way bet on a relatively new technology.”

When asked about the motivation for these meetings, F1’s chief corporate relations and communications officer Liam Parker told CNBC, “It’s to explain our solutions for decarbonizing road vehicles and continue to demonstrate F1’s commitment to the automotive industry.” importance of the industry.

However, some critics hint at more sinister motives. “Given that most automakers are committed to electrification anyway, the only industry that would benefit from the e-fuels amendment is oil and gas, as it protects their traditional interests in refining,” Cairns said. 2020, 1 Formula One has signed a $45 million-a-year sponsorship deal with Saudi Aramco, which stipulates Partnerships will work Committed to “promoting the development of sustainable fuels”.

F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali denied accusations put to him by CNBC that F1 was acting on behalf of Aramco. “We’re not lobbying for anyone, we’re looking at the best future for everyone. This is a very complex topic and we need to be more cautious than a lot of people who are talking about it without understanding the complexities of this transition,” “He said. “

Regardless of their impact on the road, Domenicali is clear that sustainable fuels will play a major role in the future of his sport. “F1 has always been regarded as having the lightest and best cars, so if sustainable fuels are successful, we may get back to a situation where batteries are no longer needed,” he said.

Correction: This story has been updated with the correct spelling of Stefano Domenicali’s name.