Is the future of motor sport electric?

To many enthusiasts the thought of 24 silent Formula 1 cars gliding through Eau Rouge is abhorrent. But, could it happen?

The Financial Times reported in April 2011 that Antonio Tajani, the European Union’s Industry and Entrepreneurship commissioner has tasked the FIA with setting up a race series for electric vehicles.  It is backed by the European Investment Bank’s ‘green car initiative’, which lists “research on electric and hybrid vehicles” as the component most essential in its research. With Europe’s political elite backing the project the odds are stacked in its favour.

The FIA created the Environmentally Sustainable Motor Sport Commission in December 2008. It has the task of developing sustainable motor sport policies for all FIA championships. Jean Todt announced in April 2011 that the FIA is to introduce new electric car, kart and single-seater categories. He sees electric series as global too, “as much as we can do it all over the world, we will do it,” he said. The FIA has clearly stated its views about climate change in its manifesto; it has even created the ‘Alternative Energies Commission’ to tackle the issue, with it’s own web site and a bevy of high profile ambassadors like Lewis Hamilton.

Thus far there is no race series for electric cars to enter. Having said that, there are a number of manufacturers making some decidedly sporty Electric Vehicles, some with racing credentials.#Radical Sports Cars has already produced the SRZero electric sports car that traveled 26,000km down the Pan-American Highway (EVO issue 147). Although Radical has now passed development over to Imperial College London as they concentrate on the SL road car. Toyota is due to hold a record attempt at the Nürburgring Nordschleife on August 29th and Nissan has produced the Leaf racing car.

Some progress has been made with the development of electric only racing series. This November the inaugural EVcup race will take place at Laguna Seca, featuring a city car category and a sports car category filled with Westfield iRacers. Ice racing has also turned to batteries; while the Andros Trophy still retains a petrol class they have enjoyed the success of a new electric category. Nicolas Prost, son of Alain, was the champion this year and it proved that in ice racing, at least, exciting racing is taking place on battery power alone.

The pioneer of so many technologies over the years, Le Mans, has also got involved. The Automobile Club de L’Ouest  (ACO) has invited Green GT, the Lausanne based outfit headed by Jean Francois Weber to take part in the 2012 race. Weber previously worked on single seater engines, including Formula 1 power plants. While the Green GT LMP H2 does not use batteries in the same way as the Nissan Leaf (it uses hydrogen fuel cells to power an electric motor) it represents the first use of electricity to tackle the 24-hour race. The car was tested at Le Mans in the week leading up to this years 24 hours and it is due to receive its full quota of 402 bhp in time for next year’s event.

If electric motor racing is to thrive an attention grabbing, headline series must capture the attention of the public. Eric Barbaroux (the former organizer of the French Grand Prix) believes that his Formulec series could provide the answer, saying it could be the “Olympic 100m” of motor sport. Jules Bianchi has already tested the machine which has aerodynamic know how from the now defunct Brawn GP. Barbaroux has planned the first event of a ten race series to take place at the end of 2012. However, it is difficult to substantiate these claims. He says the Formulec racer will be able to hit 250 kp/h and accelerate to 100 kp/h in 3 seconds. Importantly, he says the races will last 20 minutes, which lends itself to a program time of 50 minutes, ideal for broadcasters looking to air the series on television.

The FIA would like to see serious electric only racing by 2013, however this seems to be optimistic. There is willingness from the FIA and the European Union to make electric racing succeed, and manufacturers are making strides towards this goal. However, Chris Harris’s experience with the Nissan Leaf racer suggests that the reality is still some way off. He said, “I didn’t trust the handling because the heavy batteries felt liable to throw the car into a terminal spin”, while he berated the miserly 90 mph top speed. The other major issue is inherent to electric cars, the lack of noise. “Being noiseless the Leaf Racer doesn’t communicate…I found placing the car difficult, I found exit points hard to judge.” Some progress is needed in battery design, communication and feedback from the car before electric racing cars can compete.

Electric only racing has some very powerful allies who are loath to see it fail. It will take time, and there are hurdles to cross, but we are likely to see an electric based series sooner rather than later. It might just be that you use the electric race as a window of opportunity to get the burgers in.