THE SCRAMBLE FOR HYBRID
During a visit to the FIA GT1 World Championship’s Nurburgring round in August 2010, FIA president Jean Todt expressed his hopes that all FIA-endorsed series would incorporate hybrid technology by 2013. His call to arms didn’t materialise in that timeframe, with the negative reaction to Formula 1’s V6 hybrid era dissuading many from taking the plunge, even before checking the balance sheets. But WTCR promoter Francois Ribeiro’s projection of a “brutal, violent” future for pure combustion motorsport is widely shared and by 2022 several major series will incorporate hybrid power for the first time, with many more set to follow suit.
On paper, you couldn’t get a more diverse sample of championships than the IndyCar Series, World Rally Championship and British Touring Car Championship. They compete in very different environments – the Indianapolis Motor Speedway versus the Safari Rally, anyone? – cater to very different audiences, have differing levels of manufacturer involvement – Hyundai’s entry into the BTCC with the Excelr8 Motorsport-built i30 is unlikely to register in the same postcode as its support for the factory WRC programme – and are in varying states of health. IndyCar is on the up after its buyout by Roger Penske, the WRC still recovering from Citroen’s abrupt departure in November. Yet each has drawn a line in the sand and committed its immediate future to hybrid powertrains.
This is particularly notable given the rise of fully-electric racing, with Formula E hoovering up manufacturers from other series – the World Endurance Championship lost LMP1 manufacturers Audi and Porsche despite a strong hybrid element, while Mercedes abandoned the DTM after 19 years of factory support – and the arrival of ETCR set to shake up the status quo in touring cars.
The DTM has confirmed
