FIA President Jean Todt believes that Formula 1 will not switch to an all-electric specification for decades, assuming it ever does.
Formula E, created specifically to be an all-electric championship, is enjoying increasing popularity and booming manufacturer involvement.
However, Todt maintains that it cannot match F1 for performance for the foreseeable future, and that F1 should continue with hybrids for the time being.
“At the moment you can only consider F1 with a hybrid engine,” said Todt.
“You cannot envisage to have FE substituting F1.
“FE races last three-quarters of an hour at average speeds of up to 118km/h. F1 races run for more than twice as long and the average speeds more than twice as high over distances in excess of 300 kilometres.”
“There is not one (electric) race car able to do 300 kilometres at Formula 1 speed today.
“I mean, it would be decades before it can happen, if it does happen.
“Today hybrid is the proper choice, the next step is to see how we can secure greener fuels.”
F1 announced last month a target to become carbon (dioxide) neutral by 2030, which would be achieved in part by increasing the biofuel component of fuels.
Current regulations stipulate a 5.75 percent biofuel component, which F1 Chief Technical Officer Pat Symonds says the championship is “looking to increase to 10 percent” in 2021.
“Formula 1 didn’t invent the hybrid, but Formula 1 showed what a hybrid could be and it moved people’s perceptions of what a hybrid is capable of and I think we can do the same with new fuel technology and hopefully demonstrate that another viable alternative energy source is possible,” Symonds told F1’s official website at the time of the announcement.
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