No hybrid power in next-gen F2 cars

There are no plans for F2 or F3 to introduce a hybrid element with the championships set to remain committed to internal combustion engines for the foreseeable future.

An all-new Dallara-designed F2 chassis is in the final stages of development and will soon hit track for its initial testing.

It will do so with a Mecachrome combustion engine as the F1 feeder class looks to introduce synthetic fuel in 2027.

The development of that fuel, which will be used in both F2 and F3, is running parallel to F1’s own project to develop a similar solution.

There is a key difference, however, with the F2 fuel looking to use carbon capture technology.

As of this year, the championship has switched to 55 percent biofuel without any drop in performance or reliability concerns.

“We chose the other path, which is the sustainable fuel and the synthetic fuel in the future,” explained Formula 2 and Formula 3 CEO Bruno Michel when asked about the appetite for hybrid power.

“Coming up with a hybrid engine, you have no idea of what would be the cost implications on the future car; on the engine itself, but on the operations as well.”

While the project is aiming to deliver fully synthetic fuel for 2027, Michel hopes that could even be fast-tracked to 2026.

That’s an ambitious target, however, with the technology still very much in its infancy.

“We didn’t want to do exactly the same as F1 will do,” explained Didier Perrin, technical director of Formula 2 and Formula 3.

“We’ve decided, with Aramco, to promote something a little bit more extreme – it’s a bit easier for us as we are a single-make championship; we can impose the type of fuel that we want.

“So we’ve decided to target in 2027 to go not only sustainable, but sustainable with carbon dioxide capture from the atmosphere – which is sometimes called synthetic fuel, or efuel.

“So we will be fully sustainable in 2027, one year later than F1, but we will be fully sustainable with a carbon capture from the atmosphere, which is a step forward, a little bit more ambitious.

“You must know that today, this kind of technology is more or less limited to laboratory quantities.”

The plan is to, over the coming years, switch from the existing biofuels blend to a synthetic fuel mixture, ramping that up from 55 percent as it currently stands to 100 percent for 2027.

As it does so, a keen eye is being kept on the bottom line – a key consideration when it comes to staying true to the internal combustion engine.

Cost is a primary consideration for Michel, with F2 and F3 operating a pay-to-play model.

Any increase in cost is therefore passed on to the customer – the driver – raising the barrier to entry.

It is why the next generation chassis will have a nominal lifespan of six years, versus three, as it allows the costs to be amortised over a greater period.

That attention to driving down costs also applies to headcount within teams, with limits on the number of mechanics allowed per car, and is why Michel is not in favour of hybrid power in F2 or F3.

“If you start to complexify the ca, more and more and more, which is something it’s always a balance that we have to be careful about, at some point you won’t be able to stick with the number of people that we’re having now and then it means that the rest of the costs are escalating as well.

“The complexity of the car is something that we are extremely careful about to make sure that they can continue to operate the car with the same number of people.”