Formula One fans who hoped that the screaming normally-aspirated engines will make a return to Formula One are out of luck.
The current power unit regulations are set until the end of 2025 and F-1 is committed to staying with the hybrid concept with the new rules package that will be introduced in 2026.
Formula One and the FIA continue on their path to have a net zero carbon footprint by 2030. The plan includes:
• Reducing the carbon footprint of the F-1 car and the on-track activities.
• Moving to ultra-efficient logistics and travel.
• Having 100 percent renewably powered offices, facilities, and factories.
• By 2025 ensuring all events are sustainable by using sustainable materials at all events with single-use plastics being eliminated and all waste reused, recycled, or composted.
• Providing incentives and tools to offer every fan a greener way to reach the race and ensure circuits and facilities enhance fan well being and nature as well as providing opportunities for local people, businesses and causes to get more involved in the action during a Formula One race weekend.
Formula One said in a statement: “At the top of Formula One’s priorities for both sustainability and the sport is building a roadmap for the internal combustion engine that addresses the environmental goals of our automotive partners and society.
Formula One has long served as a platform for introducing next generation advancements in the automotive world. We believe we have the opportunity to do that with a next generation engine that combines hybrid technology with sustainable fuels. Therefore a working group of F-1 and FIA personnel has been set up to investigate a future engine formula powered by sustainable fuels. This group will be expanded to include specialists from the OEMs and energy suppliers as well as seeking expertise from independent research groups. Although the carbon footprint of the cars is a very small percentage of our carbon footprint as a sport (0.7 percent) it is important that the most visual part of our sport is sustainable and can have real world benefits.
“We believe that with over 1 billion of the 1.1 billion vehicles in the world powered by Internal Combustion Engines, we have the potential to lead the way in technologies that reduce automotive carbon emissions globally. We also believe that there is not a single solution for the sport and the automotive sector to the engine technologies of the future but that a sustainably fuel hybrid engine will be a significant moment for the sport and the automotive sector.”