Pitstraight to be driven with electric motors

[Kennett Ylitalo]

Kovalainen said something extremely interesting in an interview with a Finnish newspaper. He said that there are plans to include electricity as a powersource to F1 cars and they would be used to drive in the pitstraight. What i understood, it means that the actual pitstops would be under electric power from the pitentry thru the exit..

He said that in could come very soon, in two to three years time.. And they are researching to convert the whole F1 to electric motors in 10 years time. The snippet was very short, only couple of sentences but quite revealing.

source

In my personal opinion, switching to electric would be good. I know we will loose the roar but as a research tool, F1 could finally give us the revolution we are waiting for.

 

[Kyle Puttifer]

Electric cars are irrelevant. Hydrogen is the way forward IMO.
And what's the point of F1 without screaming petrol-powered internal combustion engines? If F1 loses that, it loses it's character, and then the circuits WILL be able to moan about crappy sound, because there won't be any sound!

 

[Hampus Andersson]

The pitlane electric bit is part of the new regulations in 2014.

Neither electric or Hydrogen is the real future, electric might be good in short term but eventually you would have to find other propulsion systems that we (the public atleast) have no knowledge about today.
As far as Hydrogen goes, please ask BMW if they think hydrogen is the way to go

And about F1 being 100% electric, i doubt that will ever happen as long as teams like Ferrari are still alive.
But, i would love to see pure electric cars in F1, or as a series next to F1.

You would probably see acceleration on a completely new level if it would be introduced. You have 100% of the torque at 0.1% throttle input.

 

[Kyle Puttifer]

Electric formula?
Check out Formula E
http://www.formula1blog.com/2011/08/20/fia-launches-new-formula-electric-racing-series/

You would probably see acceleration on a completely new level if it would be introduced. You have 100% of the torque at 0.1% throttle input.

Somehow I think that requires TC.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Or 4WD 0-60 times would probably be cut in half or more.

 

[Wojciech Grabowski]

Somehow I think that requires TC.

I hope there is a way to use something what will work like "reversed clutch". Releasing power from engine to wheels with pedal.

I think it's OK if cars won't be slower...

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Did you see formula cars irl? Speed is brutal, that's one thing. But nothing can match the sound!!! The earth-shattering sound of the 550hp V8 engine of the Auto GP cars on the Hungaroring was absolutely jaw-dropping! It was like, you could hear them even when they were at the opposite side of the track, miles away, you could even hear them from the nearby village! You hear them coming, then nothing else is going on in your mind but "here they come, here they come, aaaaaaah!!!"
Electric engines. Through the TV it doesn't make much difference. But irl it kills the show imo.

Still, the sad thing is, petrol is not infinite. We'll run out of it sometime soon in the future. Motorsports become less exciting, only the fights will be left for us.

Though it's ok if they use electric engines in the pits. I have no objection against that

 

[Hampus Andersson]

If we talk about sound then F1 died a long time ago Sure they sound absolutely ludacris now as well but remember the old Ferrari V12 or the legendary BMW V10? If not then close your eyes, increase the volume and just relax

Oh and the BRM V16!

The three best sounding engines in my opinion.
I guess for V8´s it has to be Ferrari or Mercedes, any of the engines that made that ringing noise as the engine bounced on the limiter, love that sound.

 

[Péter Bártfai]

Oh and I forgot to say another important thing, besides the sound! The smell of petrol!!!

 

[Victor Ivanov]

v10s were amazing, I miss those engines.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Yea they truly were, from what i´ve heard from people that went to races during the V10 era, they claimed that the BMW V10 was the loudest F1 engine they had ever heard in their life Such a screamer, and the sad part is that they had an even more extreme engine built for the 2005 season.

Here´s an interesting article about the BMW V10´s and how the engined evolved up until the point where the FIA decided to change regulations again for longevity which caused BMW to not use the latest version of the engine but instead keep the "old" one.

http://sd-2.archive-host.com/membres/up/10237196789579146/moteurs_BMW_F1.pdf

 

[Chris Jenkins]

I thought they were scrapping the whole KERS/pit lane idea as it would be a safety hazard for people to not hear the cars coming. They were talking about it on BBC earlier this year.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

Found this little bit. Could change though.

5.19 Electric mode :
The car must be run in electric mode (no ignition and no fuel supply to the engine) at all times
when being driven in the pit lane.

This one is pretty interesting as well,

5.18 Starting the engine :
It must be possible for the driver to start the engine at any time when seated normally at the
wheel and without any external assistance.

And this one as well, forgot about this one.

9.6.1 The number of forward gear ratios must be 8

 

[Victor Ivanov]

With these silent electric cars in the pit late I wonder how many hit mechanics we'll see...

 

[Péter Bártfai]

They can add artificial sound so it will be no problem. They won't be completely silent, so people in the pitlane will notice them.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

With these silent electric cars in the pit late I wonder how many hit mechanics we'll see...

Tires make quite alot of noise at 100km/h especially when you don't have an engine to muffle it.
And then the electric engine itself will make noise but i have no idea at what rpm the cars will run at.

But if anyone manages to get hit it's their own fault really. i mean you are in a pitlane with F1 cars going at 100km/h and they can only come from one direction.
if you get hit then you should have paid more attention to what you are doing.

 

[Chris Jenkins]

Tires make quite alot of noise at 100km/h especially when you don't have an engine to muffle it.
And then the electric engine itself will make noise but i have no idea at what rpm the cars will run at.

But if anyone manages to get hit it's their own fault really. i mean you are in a pitlane with F1 cars going at 100km/h and they can only come from one direction.
if you get hit then you should have paid more attention to what you are doing.

They will be silent when you think of the noise on the other side of the pit wall. No one will hear tyre noise over that.

 

[Hampus Andersson]

True, i guess they just have to revert back to the standard "look left (or) right before you walk"

 

[Victor Ivanov]

Yeah imagin cars from one side running with 18 000 rpm with over 300 km/h how would you hear the tyre noise or the sound the of electrical motor hahah no way

 

[Hampus Andersson]

they don´t pass all the time though But as i said, just have to revert back to the old fashioned eyeballs