Energy efficiency key to the FIA PresidentFIA President Max Mosley presented his vision of an energy efficient future for Formula One during a speech to the International Advanced Mobility Forum (IAMF) at the Geneva Motor Show yesterday.
During the IAMF plenary
session, to an audience of leading automotive technology experts, the FIA President presented the latest thinking behind new technical regulations in the FIA Formula One World Championship. The new rules are set to introduce a series of energy recovery systems that will be hugely relevant to the car industry and to the increasingly eco-conscious motoring consumer.
“In 2009 Formula One is going hybrid as the first stage of a programme to divert the vast research effort at the pinnacle of motor sport towards energy efficiency," Mosley said. "The development of engines has been frozen, meaning that extra power can only be gained by making better use of energy, or by getting more useful work from the fuel burned.
"Called KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System), this hybrid device is set to revolutionise Formula One. It will make the sport at once more environmentally friendly, road relevant, and at the cutting edge of future automotive technology.
"By bringing in rule changes which make these technologies the only means by which a power advantage can be obtained, we can ensure that the outstanding engineers and huge budgets available to Formula One will be deployed on energy recovery technologies which are directly relevant to the car industry’s efforts to reduce CO2 emissions as well as the average motorist’s fuel bill."
The FIA President also took the opportunity of the IAMF event to present the Make Cars Green campaign which forms part of the FIA’s ongoing commitment to work with policy makers, industry and motoring consumers to encourage greener motoring.
The new initiative seeks to reduce the impact of motoring on the environment in a number of ways. These include: the promotion of more environmentally friendly and fuel efficient driver behaviour; the introduction of new technologies to help motorists monitor their environmental impact; the improvement of tyre design to help save energy; and by encouraging the global use of unleaded and sulphur free fuels.
As part of the campaign, the FIA has launched a public policy Declaration which calls on the United Nations to adopt the first ever worldwide target for CO2 emissions in passenger cars.
Source: FIA
