MOTORSPORT: Two-stroke idea for Formula 1

While Formula 1 will stick with its 1.6-litre V6 hybrid powertrains until the middle of this decade, the sport’s chief technical officer, Pat Symonds, has foreshadowed change beyond then that he says would be ‘green’ but noisy – two-stroke engines, still hybrids, running on hydrogen.

Symonds says two-strokes would be efficient and bring back the sound F1 has lacked since 2014.

He claims they could make F1 ‘greener’ than the Formula E electric open-wheeler series.

Symonds spoke at an energy-efficiency conference at the Motorsport Industry Association in Britain, where research was presented that showed electric racing cars could be responsible for twice the level of carbon emissions as hybrids because of the amount produced when building batteries.

F1 recently announced a project to become carbon-neutral in 2030.

Symonds has returned to a prominent position in F1 after being embroiled, banned and subsequently effectively cleared of responsibility for Renault’s infamous ‘crashgate’ at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

Brazilian Nelson Piquet Junior said he had been instructed to deliberately crash to create the circumstances for teammate Fernando Alonso to win the race.

Symonds was suspended from F1 for five years after expressing “eternal regret and shame”, but that ban was later overturned and he became chief technical officer at the Williams F1 team until the end of 2016.

Symonds told the recent conference: “We [in F1] need to look at what our future power units will look like and I’m very keen on it being a two-stroke [engine].

“Much more efficient, great sound from the exhaust and a lot of the problems with the old two strokes are just not relevant any more.

“The opposed piston engine is very much coming back and already in road-car form at around 50 per cent efficiency.

“Direct injection, pressure charging, and new ignition systems have all allowed new forms of two-stroke engines to be very efficient and very emission-friendly.

“I think there’s a good future for them.”

Symonds foresees the cars being powered by synthetic fuel, made by combining hydrogen with carbon captured from the air, using surplus green energy.

“It might be that the next power unit we produce is the last one we do with liquid hydrocarbons,” he said.

“I think there’s a very high chance that there might still be an internal combustion engine, but maybe it’s running on hydrogen.

“I certainly think that the internal combustion engine has a long future and I think it has a future that’s longer than a lot of politicians realise because politicians are hanging everything on electric vehicles.

“There’s nothing wrong with electric vehicles, but there are reasons why they are not the solution for everyone.”

As the first Dakar Rally in the Middle East goes into its second and final week, there is talk of changes in the more immediate future to make it ‘greener’.

New Dakar boss David Castera has admitted the event is “not in tune with the times”.

A hybrid truck is running in it this time after a 100 per cent electric car finished in South America in 2017.

An electric SUV is being tested in Saudi Arabia too this month by nine-time Dakar competitor Guerlain Chicherit.

There is talk of a new category for electric cars and plans for a new truck category within two years that would be 100 per cent hybrid.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz won his third stage of this year’s Dakar when it resumed after a rest day.

Driving an X-Raid MINI, he leads the Toyota Hilux of Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiyah by 10 minutes with more than 2000 competitive kilometres left – mainly over dunes in the country’s ‘Empty Quarter’ – before the finish in Qiddiya on Saturday morning, Australian time.

France’s ‘Monsieur Dakar’, Stephane Peterhansel, is third in another X-Raid MINI, more than 19 minutes behind Sainz.

Fernando Alonso is 15th, almost 3½ hours off the lead after his crash on day two, but beat South African former winner and Toyota teammate Giniel de Villiers on last night’s stage.

Australia’s two-time motorcycle champion of the Dakar, Toby Price, has dropped to fourth, almost 29 minutes behind two-wheel leader, American Ricky Brabec, who is poised to end KTM’s 18-year strangehold and give Honda its first Dakar victory in 30 years.

Tonight’s bike stage has been cancelled out of respect for Portuguese rider Paulo Goncalves, a veteran of the event who overnight became its first fatality since 2015.

Supercar superstar Shane Van Gisbergen was denied victory in Australia’s first Asian Le Mans Series race at The Bend by a late mechanical failure in the Ligier JS P217 he shared with fellow New Zealanders Daniel Gaunt and Nick Cassidy.

Gaunt led the early stages of the four-hour race at the South Australian venue before handing over to The Giz.

However, Dutchman Leonard Hoongenboom in the ultimately-victorious Aurus 01 of Russian team G-Drive Racing withstood Van Gisbergen’s challenge before handing over to Russian teammate Roman Rusinov.

Cassidy closed on Rusinov in the last hour before the Eurasia team pitted the Ligier hoping to leapfrog the Russian later, but a full-course yellow wrongfooted it and after the caution Cassidy limped to the pits and retired the car.

The other Eurasia entry which had Australian Nick Foster in its line-up as well as ex-F1 driver Roberto Mehri thus inherited second and made a repeat of the first ALMS result in Shanghai.

Ferraris filled the first four positions in the GT class.
The next ALMS round is at Sepang in Malaysia in mid-February.

The first full season of racing has been confirmed for the 5.4-litre V8 Brabham BT62.

The first customer BT62 sold by the marque revived by David Brabham will contest the Britcar Endurance Championship in Britain.

It will be driven by reigning series champion Paul Bailey, who has bought the car, and Ross Wylie, a former series champion who has helped develop the BT62’s racetrack performance.

David Brabham gave the BT62 a successful debut at Brands Hatch last November, winning a race with co-driver Will Powell, and has ambitions of ultimately racing it in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

He plans to field a works car in cameo appearances in various series this year, while on the customer front Brabham Automotive CEO Dan Marks said: “We will be busy delivering track and road-compliant BT62s to new owners throughout 2020.

The first BT62 Competition in customer hands is a key milestone for Brabham Automotive as an OEM and a marker of the brand returning as a constructor of competitive racing cars that customers can run themselves.

“We are confident the BT62’s performance [in the hands of Bailey and Wylie] will encourage others to look very seriously at purchasing a Brabham for racing, track use in a gentleman racing environment or for use on the road.”