Formula 1 Will Never Go Electric (2024)

Formula 1 has become increasingly complex and high-tech in recent years. The series has been striving to become more environmentally friendly and has included more technology we see in street cars, like small-displacement engines with turbos and hybridization, in an effort to stay relevant beyond the race track. Of course, the natural next step in thinking would be that F1 will eventually go full electric, either usurping or taking over Formula E.

Not so, says Stefano Domenicali, F1's CEO.

In an interview with an Italian paper, Domenicali said the series "will never go electric." It's the sort of statement that can bite someone years down the line, like when it was said Ferrari would "never" build an SUV, but there are other plans to keep F1 relevant and sustainable.

Synthetic fuels, or e-fuels, are what F1 sees as the future. The lab-created fuel is already in limited production, but costs an extreme amount of money. A problem for the real world, but not for motorsport. F1's aim is to have e-fuels powering the grid by 2026, and then working to find a way to get them in passenger cars as combustion bans start to take effect in nations in the 2030s, just as F1 hopes to become carbon neutral.

Now, will the series be able to avoid being electric forever? Hopefully. And while Domenicali is at it, if they move to a totally sustainable fuel, why not bring back a 20,000-rpm V-10? It just makes sense.