Say goodbye to F1 cars screaming down the pitlane: F1 cars are to be powered solely by electricity in the pitlane from 2014 onwards, once the new turbocharged six-cylinder layouts come into force.
According to rule 5.19 of the revised technical regulations "The car must be run in electric mode (no ignition and no fuel supply to the engine) at all times when being driven in the pit lane."
In order to shove the F1 grid along on electric propulsion alone during visits to the garage, the cars' KERS systems will be uprated to 120KW. That's 160bhp and twice what the KERS systems currently provide - so will make up quite a significant proportion of the next-generation F1 car's power.
So is this the end of F1 as we know it? Or the beginning of the end? Perhaps it's the end of the beginning...
We suppose there's one positive way of looking at it: all we need is to invent an effective anti-gravity system and F1 could become like that classic 90s computer game Wipeout...
