RICHARDS: MOTORSPORT SLOW TO ADOPT HYBRIDS
Governing body evaluating marshal training programme
Motorsport UK is already reviewing its marshal training programmes to prepare for the arrival of hybrid powertrains in national racing, according to its chairman David Richards.
The boss of the British motorsport governing body and the 1981 World Rally champion co-driver attended the British Touring Car Championship meeting at Oulton Park last weekend, and at the venue teams met as the series prepares to award its hybrid tender for 2021.
Richards reckons motor racing has been “slow to react” and needs to be “far more progressive” in its adoption of hybrid technology.
“If you want the engagement of the public you’ve got to be racing cars that resonate with them as well,” he said.
“I’m sure that within the next few years you’re going to see hybrid technology across most cars and we’ve got to think of the whole fully electric scenario as well.”
The former team principal of Formula 1 outfit BAR, Richards added that he expected hybrid technology to rapidly filter down to club-level motorsport and so Motorsport UK is in the process of evaluating the training programme for marshals.
“We’re doing a big programme on electric [marshal] training at the moment and training is an evolving issue for marshals, for officials and scrutineers,” he said.
“It’s a constantly moving agenda so we’ve got to be aware of that and be up to speed on it all.
“It’s early stages now and we’ve got to see how this whole technology evolves.”
But Jonathan Palmer, the chief executive of Motorsport Vision – which owns Oulton
Park alongside Brands Hatch, Donington Park, Snetterton and Cadwell Park – added that the introduction of electrically assisted powertrains will not require significant modifications to circuits’ infrastructure.
He said: “I think that at the modest levels of battery capacity and electrical power output, I don’t think it’s a significant change for circuits to make at the moment in order to adapt.
“I think it’s a very different deal if we’re talking about fully electrical vehicles like a Tesla, but I think we’re a long, long way off having that in British motorsport. That’s my hunch.”