Mosley pushes regenerative energy

Writing in his column in the latest issue of F1 Racing magazine, on sale next week, Mosley expanded on plans for regenerative power systems that store the energy generated by the F1 cars under braking.

"Making things light and efficient is a great F1 talent," he said. "And it wouldn't be long before relatively inexpensive versions of these devices could be offered on high-performance road cars.

"The result would be blinding acceleration, but low fuel consumption. Every time a driver braked or lifted off, the energy would be recovered and stored. Eventually such devices would be fitted to everyday cars, with huge benefits for fuel economy.

"All of which would be much more useful than attempts to extract another few hundred revs from engines already running on the high side of 19,000rpm.

"And that's why we're also inviting the major car companies to propose a new engine formula for 2011, when we'll suggest limiting power not by engine capacity (as we've done for the past 100 years), but by fuel.

"This may mean, for example, capping the maximum fuel-flow rate as a function of rpm, leaving the engine designers to maximise power from a given quantity of fuel.

"In short, we're invited the car companies to help us make F1 part of their general fuel economy research."

Mosley believes that such research can be achieved cost-effectively if the engine freeze is adopted.

"Yes, you may say, all very interesting, but what about cost? Who will pay?," he wrote. "The obvious answer is that by stopping conventional engine development, we save 100 million dollars plus per major manufacturer each year, while they're already working on regenerative braking.

"And it wouldn't be surprising if organisations outside the automobile industry also became involved - plenty of work is going on and there's a lot of expertise out there, much of it surviving on very modest budgets.

"F1 may be just the catalyst that is needed."