This is the biggest change in the FIA's technical regulations in 30 years. The WRC championship is entering an era of electromobility. The reason for the changes is to eliminate the environmental impact of rally sport. From 2022, we will see plug-in hybrid racing specials in the Rally1 category.
This is the biggest change in the FIA's technical regulations in 30 years. The WRC championship is entering an era of electromobility. The reason for the changes is to eliminate the environmental impact of rally sport. From 2022, we will see plug-in hybrid racing specials in the Rally1 category.
FIA position
Current plans by the International Automobile Federation (FIA) call for the inclusion of electrified powertrains in the World Rally Championship (WRC) as early as 2022, initially for hybrid (mild-hybrid) cars.
The FIA said the aim is "to show that existing production car technologies can be transferred to motorsport, rather than developing a special plug-in hybrid system tailored to the racing world".
Category WRC
The new generation of WRC cars (now in the Rally1 category) will use the existing engines, which will be supplemented by a 100kW plug-in hybrid system. Precisely to reduce the development and production costs of the new powertrain, the focus has been on retaining the current 1.6-litre direct-injection turbocharged units, or switching to similar but less powerful powertrains based on the R5 cars used in the Rally2 class.The hybrid system will be standardised for the first three seasons (2022 - 2024) for all, supplied by German company Compact Dynamics. Testing of the new hybrid powertrain will begin in March 2021. Only from 2024 will the stables gain greater freedom in the technology used.
To increase the safety of the Rally1 class, the cars will be retrofitted with an additional tubular arch in the area behind the crew compartment, which will increase the torsional rigidity of the safety frame in the event of a crash. The reinforcement of the material in the door sill area will in turn improve safety in the event of a side impact.
Other innovations introduced to eliminate the cost of this change include reducing the number of engines used by the WRC crew from three to just two, removing the ALS (Antilag Air Pressure System), and "freezing" some of the parts currently used.
Category WRC2
The FIAhas announced that electrification will also be introduced in the WRC2 (now Rally2) category in a second wave. For the second level of the World Rally Championship, the Rally2 class cars will get a power boost thanks to a low-voltage 48-volt system. In conjunction with a small lithium-ion battery and an integrated belt-driven starter-generator, this device produces an additional 10 horsepower. The simple technology, which is currently in common use in passenger cars, is expected to be approved in September 2021, just before it goes into effect for the 2022 launch season.
Why hybrid technology
So why did the FIA choose hybrid systems when there are championships and amateur competitions of fully electrified racing cars around the world?
The hybrid system will allow a relatively quick transition to electrification without the high costs of developing and manufacturing a new drive. The plug-in hybrid system will allow both drives to be combined at the same time. It will be powerful enough to allow cars to run temporarily on electric power alone. This will be used mainly for transitions between stages. When racing on stages, the hybrid system will support the conventional combustion engine and generate additional energy, the so-called power boost. This will make the cars even faster. During the race, the spectators will not miss out on the emotions enhanced by the sound of the engine. On the other hand, in towns and at crossings between stages, the car will run quietly and environmentally friendly.
Safety and charging
There are also two issues that are not so much related to the technology of the car. One is the dreaded battery extinguishing in race car accidents. But that's where the experts are now contradicting us. "To extinguish traction batteries quickly and efficiently, the Cold Cut System COBRA is now used, which is a high-pressure device that cuts any material with a narrow beam of water and the addition of an abrasive (raw materials or minerals with high hardness). It punches a hole in the battery and extinguishes it in a few moments." Explains Jiří Vršínský, traction battery and electric drive expert at DEVINN.
Charging the batteries, and indeed the power for the entire WRC facilities, will now also have to be environmentally friendly. But how to provide green electricity even when stages or tests are out of town? One suitable option could be to combine electromobility and hydrogen. The H2BASE device(www.h2base.eu) from the Czech company DEVINN is essentially a large-capacity power source that stores energy specifically in hydrogen and, thanks to a fuel cell, can convert it back into electrical and thermal energy at any time. The instantaneous output is up to 100 kW, the capacity is almost unlimited. Completely emission-free, the only waste is pure water. It is easily transportable. It can power anything electric and recharge an electric car. The device would thus solve the ecological problem of powering the entire race facilities, heating the tents and recharging the race car batteries between stages.
The emphasis on sustainable technologies and electrification is undoubtedly a global trend and their inclusion in rallying would bring a certain revival to the discipline as well as new challenges for development and innovation.
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