Bernie Ecclestone has come up with a radical suggestion for Formula One to look into as he wants the sport to opt for an all-electric powered future.
He is confident that electric cars are what the future is all about and would love to speak to all the teams about it.
“We still own the name Formula One, we still have contracts with promoters, let’s make different types of cars, let’s speak to the manufacturers and start a new all-electric F1, a Formula One for the future,” the former Formula One chief executive said.
Eccleston was at the helm of the sport for 40 years having brought a lot of commercial success to the sport and uplifting it to the level that it is today.
With cars all around the world shifting to an electric model in order to save fuel, Ecclestone feels it is the right time for F1 to embrace that change as well.
Ecclestone wants Formula One to move from the expensive hybrid engines that are in use today. The new regulations kick in from 2021 and could see some upgradation with respect to engines.
Ecclestone also wants to change the current financial model, where the teams are paid by the Formula 1 for taking part in the competition, a model that was put in place by Ecclestone himself.
“Can’t we do this?” he said.
“The manufacturers provide the cars themselves but we aren’t going to pay them because they get massive worldwide publicity. It would be a super Formula E, if you like. You can make cars be like an F1 car and the only thing you would miss would be the noise and I do not believe that people could not come up with something to make more or less the old F1 noise. They [Liberty] would need to have the balls to do it today. I think they will have to do it.” he added.
How would these electric cars function? How much will it affect the speed of the machines that we so truly love? That’s for us to see, but hopefully the electric cars in F1 never see the light of day.
