Mercedes admit that all-electric will be embraced eventually

Mercedes

Mercedes admit that all-electric will be embraced eventually

How long can Formula 1 hold off the electric horizon?

Sam Hall

Thursday 23 April 2020 15:56 Updated: 16:18

Mercedes director of commercial engineering says Geoff Willis says that the team are aware of the approaching electric horizon but suggests that Formula 1 will only truly embrace this change when the technology 'very, very competitive'.

Speaking on the Mercedes Deep Dive YouTube video, Willis explained how the KERS system, first introduced in 2009, was the correct first test of hybrid technology before the full transition in 2014.

We first looked, in 2009 I think it was, at energy recovery, the KERS system, with a small amount of energy recovery, a small battery and a motor generator that recovered energy under braking and deployed it when the driver went," said Willis.

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"This was a foot in the water just to try and understand the technology and it wasn't quite a bit enough change.

"With the change for the full turbo hybrid cars, we got the whole package. We got efficiency, we got an enormous step with power, we got a huge reduction in fuel consumption and we showed that this technology, that was sort of laboratory level technology, we could put it in a racing environment."

The ABB Formula E championship is now in it's sixth season and has shown a startling level of improvement in electric vehicle technology across the years. Starting with drivers needing to jump between cars midway through the race due to the low storage capacity of batteries, cars are now able to last the distance and race with a higher power output than ever before.

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The subject of when Formula 1 will make a switch to becoming a fully electric championship has come up many times and, although there will likely be no definitive answer to this question in the coming years, the admission from Mercedes that this technology is entering the thoughts of the team may indicate that the change could happen sooner rather than later.

Willis added, "If you asked me the question, where are we going long-term with Formula 1 technology, you can see in the distance that we probably have to be fully electric, but we want to be very, very competitive fully electric, and I think we've got to be thinking about recovering energy on front wheels and rear wheels, deploying energy on four-wheels as well and really pushing the next level of energy management."