Driving the next generation: Why the future of motorsport is vital to the mainstream

Interestingly, even some of those working within motorsport have begun questioning its relevance. With many of today's races taking place in what is known as 'spec' series – where all the cars are made up of the same design and engine – innovation is hard to come by. It frustrated one British racing car designer to such an extent he had to do something about it. "I was trying to find tiny incremental performance changes and there was little difference to what we were making," says Ben Bowlby, designer of the Deltawing. "And, I couldn't stand the spec racing phenomenon and thought it was awful for our industry. We need to be realigned with the automotive industry and we aren't when we go spec racing." Bowlby had something of an epiphany; realising that the tough targets the mainstream automotive world faces around carbon emission reduction and energy efficiency created an opportunity for motorsport. He wanted to step outside the tightly regulated world of spec racing to build one of the most efficient racing cars ever conceived. Just as fast, twice as efficient "We put this crazy idea out there where we could be as fast as LMP2 (Le Mans Prototype) cars but twice as efficient," says Bowlby. "We halved the weight, halved the size of the engine, halved the aerodynamic drag, and doubled efficiency; halving the carbon footprint." Following a meeting with motorsport governing bodies, it was decided the Deltawing could run at last year's Le Mans under 'Garage 56'. The 56th Garage is reserved, and allows for, experimental and innovative cars to run unclassified, meaning while it can compete it is ineligible for points or awards. The Deltawing is different from any other racing car ever produced and, while it might look like Bruce Wayne's latest runabout, it has shaken up the motorsport industry by showing just what is possible today. "We didn't invent a new powertrain for the Deltawing," says Bowlby. "We used existing technology that we know about today and just packaged it differently. It was actually fairly simple and not as complex as you might think." The Deltawing halves aerodynamic drag, downsizes its engine to a 1.6l turbo and is ultra lightweight – thus neatly encapsulating three key drivers in the modern mainstream automotive industry. The rules that govern the future of motorsport are critical in defining the direction of its innovation. Some recent moves, such as F1 downsizing engines and Le Mans making efficiency the deciding point of a race, are significant in trying to align motorsport innovation with the requirements of the automotive industry. But other rules, believes Bowlby, are less useful. "Having a minimum weight is like saying you have to have a minimum fuel burn," he says. "There is no minimum weight on a road car, so why do we have a regulation like that? We have very thorough crash testing now. When a minimum weight was imposed, we didn't. We have to make our rules relevant and credible so that we can support the road map of the automotive industry. "Our car is very light in comparison to the other cars we race against. Yes we are vulnerable and an incident has happened twice now. We are going to have to lightweight road cars that are next to huge articulated lorries, so we have maintain occupant safety in these structures." Changing perceptions "Motorsport has the power to change people's perceptions of a technology" is a phrase coined by Ulrich Baretzky head of engines, at Audi Motorsport. He was one of the key figures behind Audi's winning diesel Le Mans car in 2006 and also won last year with a diesel hybrid. He believes hybrid systems and lightweight structures can be showcased to the world through motorsport to make them increasingly popular and acceptable to the mainstream. To a degree he is right. Racing with diesels has helped to popularise the technology among the general consumer in Europe and even more so in the US. It has also helped support the mainstream automotive diesel engine builders with performance. No longer are diesels the slow, dirty engines they use to be. The hope is that Audi can repeat a similar trick with hybrids, and efficiency in general. The car industry has strict targets for 2020 when, if the average CO2 emissions of a manufacturer's fleet exceed 95g/km it has to pay an excess emissions premium for each car registered of €95. "That will wipe out OEMs," says Baretzky. "So this is an essential thing, and we in motorsport have a unique chance, more than ever before, to take technical leadership. "In 20 years I think we'll realise that now was the deciding point for motorsport. However, the efficiency has to be credible. We can't bend the rules or exploit any loopholes we find. We don't want to end up in two or three years with a powertrain that has turned out to be the most efficient in Le Mans but is not in daily life. Then we have missed the point." The UK is the Silicon Valley of motorsport and many want to see the skills and expertise that exist here to be leveraged. As an increasing number of hybrid and all-electric vehicles are developed, there is a significant opportunity for the UK to take a lead in green vehicle design and technology. Road relevance and technology transfer are increasingly requirements for getting investment from the automotive industry as they provide direct benefits to road car development. For this reason, a motorsport roadmap has been produced by Ricardo in conjunction with the Motorsport Industry Association (MIA) to in order to do just this and to align the sectors much more closely. "Motorsport needs to think of the automotive OEMs as its customers as well as the people who watch the sport," says Steve Sapsford, global market sectors director for high-performance vehicles and motorsport at Ricardo. "We therefore need to speak with one voice, as that helps the regulators and can help motorsport access technology funds. "We need, however, some energy storage breakthroughs. We need to make huge improvements in cost, energy and power density, which to date have been disappointing. We need that for mass market appeal." This has led to the FIA last year launching Formula E, the highest class of competition for single-seat electrically-powered racing cars. The championship will begin in 2014 with the first team confirming entry headed by former Minister of Science in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills Lord Drayson. Drayson Racing Technologies has been an outspoken champion of electric racing cars for the last few years, competing in last year's Goodwood Festival of Speed hill climb with the electrically modified Le Mans Prototype – the B12/69 – in an impressive 53.91s finishing 11th overall, as well as attempting an electric vehicle land speed record later this year. As an equivalent, the current electric vehicle land speed record set by Nemesis last year was 151.6mph. The B12 is reported to top out at just under 200mph, does 0-60 in three seconds and it has an output power equivalent to 850hp (640kW). Drayson Racing hopes to put all the lessons learned so far into making an even quicker single-seater electric racing car for the Formula E championship. "This is a journey we have been on since 2007," says Lord Drayson, team principle of Drayson Racing. "Motorsport can accelerate innovation, speed the development of these technologies and make green technology exciting." As well as transferring technology into the mainstream automotive industry, the motorsport industry is also good at finding technology from other industries. Over the last 30 years, motorsport has frequently taken ideas from aerospace technology and this was what inspired the Green GT project. "Seven years ago when I did a project on KERS for a GP2 project, we started looking at electric engines and electric solutions," says Jean-Francois Weber, managing director of Green GT. "It was crazy to continue developing mechanical engines, as we are at the end of the learning curve. If we compare efficiencies, an electric engine can be more than 95% efficiency. The only problem is the energy storage inside the cars." Based on that, Weber started looking at what was used on space shuttles. He found that the Russian Soyuz rocket used electricity created by a hydrogen oxygen fuel cell. "If aerospace uses that technology it is secure, reliable and efficient and they have never had a problem in space," he says. "They are also lightweight and resist g-force. That is exactly what we need in motorsport. When I saw it I thought: 'I want this in a race car'." The price, however, was €4million without a guarantee. But, with the help of a colleague and an investor, Green GT developed a full car with a different type of structure to accommodate the fuel cell, the fuel tanks, gearbox and fuel cell. "We've built the carbon fibre chassis," says Weber, "We've done the crash tests for FIA rules, and we are ready to go and race at Le Mans this year." The H2 will race at this year's Le Mans out of Garage 56 with a new 400kW high-temperature membrane, 18-stack fuel cells. In its distinct orange and black colours it is unmistakable. For a start, the hydrogen is stored in two large, literally bulletproof cylinders at 350bar in two composite fuel tanks under each side pod. The exhaust emits only air and water. The car uses two electrical turbochargers to force air inside the fuel cell, working between 10,000 and 120,000 rpm. The rear wheels are connected to two Type 2 synchronous three-phase permanent magnet motors which will give a massive 4000Nm at the rear wheels. It will reach a top speed of 186mph, weighs around 1240 kg, and is ready to race. And for those that are worried about the sound: "It is linked to the two turbochargers," says Weber. "When the driver pushes down the pedal, we have a compressor in front of it to put the air in and it sounds is like a helicopter turbine, but it is in relation to the foot of the driver. I think people will find we have a nice sound."