How F1 Can Learn to Stop Worrying and Save the World
The Monaco Grand Prix represents the acme of an industry dedicated to scaling the heights of both engineering and hype.
On the hype front these days, motorsports are unstoppable. With Lewis Hamilton and CART’s Danica Patrick, ‘08 podiums are practically champagne soaked Selmas. This Obama/Clinton swirl of celebrity is matched only by the gee-whiz factor of the vehicles they pilot - piles of engineering wizardry so high that it is almost impossible to see their original purpose.
The justification for all the resources dumped into race car engineering – as if racing would cease to happen were there not “a reason” for it – is well worn. Everything that goes into cars on the track comes back as better, safer (and usually faster, therefore less safe – but we’ll put that aside for the moment) passenger cars. And this is an argument that with a little scrutiny does bear fruit – semi-automatic transmissions, modern tire technology and a whole host of passive, active and supplemental safety features we take for granted in modern vehicles have their roots in motorsport.
But, like the old canard of “downstream technology” to justify the zeppelin-esque budgets of the space shuttle, the benefit to everyday drivers of F1 technology only goes so far. Did building race cars that were reliable enough not to require an on-board mechanic aid in advancing mobility? Undoubtedly. But cars that can drive upside-down? Don’t think so.
Of course, I realize that extravagance is the point. The outrageous performance figures are just part of the carnival of excess that is an F1 weekend. From breasts to boats to bottles, the idea is more, faster, bigger.
Luckily, there is a way for Formula 1 to re-define the cutting edge without losing any (even initially) of the speed, glamour and danger that makes it so attractive.
Electricity.
If Tesla motors can build, market and sell an all-electric car that does 0-100 kmh in four seconds for $109,000 USD, Formula One teams can surely produce electric cars with performance profiles not too far off what they currently have from the $300 million it costs to field an F1 team.
And imagine if they did. Imagine if tomorrow F1 teams were told that the last year they had to compete with fossil fuels was the 2009 season. How would that make the larger world look at electric technologies? People who had no idea about the capabilities of electricity as a transportation fuel would suddenly realize that one of the fastest production cars in the world was electric. They wouldn’t really care that it is six times more efficient than anything that performs anything close to it.
F1 would go from being merely the number two sport in the world to being the number one agent for change in the world.
The car companies would of course be upset. As would the oil companies. But F1 is a business and at the moment, there are no more worlds left for it to conquer. It can’t get any more popular doing things the way it does now. But going all-electric would make this pillar of old-economy promotion as shiny as the latest silicon valley start-up.
In 2006 Max Mosley said that the future of F1 was one where efficiency would play a part. If F1 were to go all-electric for 2010, the age of gasoline vehicles would be over. F1 shouldn’t just consider this, they should do it; right now.