Cyril Abiteboul: Thinking about the next generation of fuel with a view to 2025

2025 clearly appears to be a very distant horizon regarding technical regulations in F1, especially since the next technical regulations expected for 2021 are slow to officially leave the walls of the FIA ​​and F1.

But 2025 should be an important milestone for the discipline with potential changes to the single-seater powertrain. The current V6 turbo/hybrid Power Units caused a lot of discussion when they were introduced in 2014 (lack of noise, technical complexity, etc.), so what will happen to their successors?

No definitive form is yet on the menu for this year 2019, but as indicated Cyril Abiteboul, Director of Renault Sport Racing, questioned on the subject at a press conference in Monaco, certain avenues should logically emerge, in connection with the changes to come in the automobile industry.

“Electrification will be a profound trend, so it will not disappear, specifies the French manager. In my opinion, we must use the next two years to form an opinion on the link with production regarding the MGU-H, because it is clearly an element that was introduced for this purpose.

At the moment we don't see any application on production cars, but it may happen. Some manufacturers may be behind the project, so we must be careful not to be fundamentally at odds on this point. »

One of the elements which will deserve particular attention according to the boss of the sporting commitment of the Diamond brand will be the fuel aspect, an area which is always important in the performance of single-seaters. Here again the evolution of global technology.

“We continue to believe that Formula 1 is built around hybrid technology, and not completely electric, for a number of reasons, continues Abiteboul.

It is clear that we need more power, "sustainable" power, but new forms of fuel will appear over the next few years, whether biofuels, different compositions or even synthetic ones from non-fossil sources, which could be attractive and which would require new developments.

Obviously this is less exciting than a naturally aspirated engine reaching high revs, but it's probably still the way to go if we want to be relevant, not just to car manufacturers, but to society. »