2026 Formula Changes Simpliflied

When I was in college (1970-1976) in Pittsburgh Pa, during the first energy crisis, everybody was complaining about the excessive high costs of fuel oil to heat their houses in the winder time. I was sympathetic to their plight.

It is not 52-48 years later and the same buildings are still being heated with the same old fuel oil heaters. I am no longer sympathetic to that cause.

If you can't fix something in 50 years--you ain't never gonna' fix it.

 

Yep. That's exactly my argument.

3.5-4 liter V10/12, 16K rpm limit, just like V8 era limit weight, materials etc. Cheap to produce, great noise, great power. And on zero carbon fuel, utterly clean. What's not to love?

 

Only Germany and Eastern Europe relied heavily on Russian oil and mostly gas, the rest not so much.

 

Hahaha ! I wouldn't speculate on that, one way or the other.
I cannot see the car industry changing course after having spent billions and billions to switch to electricity.

 

I read that to produce Zero Carbon fuel, you need a lot of electricity, which completely defeats the object.

You can make fuel with almost anything, but it's how you produce it that matters in the end.

 

Actuallly, it's not entirely unlikely. Once we go majority EV, how do manufacturers sell "the next best thing" or implement planned obsolescence? Switching to an entirely new paradigm is good to create a new business cycle - its an old trick in the book. Lets also not forget that Hydrogen fuel cells are also a viable alternative. Toyota sells Hydrogen fuel cell cars in California and there are many Hydrogen refueling stations in LA. Electric cars are going to be part of the solution but not the only solution. We need to start looking at the energy transiton realistically instead of the narrative being peddled on us.

 

The Japanese were never onboard and Stellantis says they don't want to stop producing ICE. Even the Germans are hedging their bets. Good luck getting the Americans to switch over. Now maybe a tiny country like England or Norway can do it in 10 years, but it might end up collapsing their governments and economies due to the cost.

 

In general, it takes a lot of energy to make fuel.
So you end up putting in 120%-140% of the BTU content of the fuel,
and you get out 30% of the BTU energy in the fuel when burned in an ICE.

 

Don't forget that innovation will bring that cost down and efficiency up over a period of time. As with all technology, the marginal cost drops as we make progress. Porsche entering F1 and also making some serious investments in eFuel is not a mere coincidence. Lets stop thinking that EV is the only solution. It is not. Synthetic fuels have a place in our energy future.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2022/04/porsche-invests-75-million-in-chilean-synthetic-fuel-startup/