Reigning Formula E champion Lucas di Grassi believes that Formula 1 should focus on the sport from an entertainment perspective and leave electric technology to Formula E following the planned removal of the MGU-H from F1 in the series' 2021 engine regulations.
Di Grassi, 33, raced in Formula 1 in 2010 for Sir Richard Branson's fledgeling Virgin Racing squad and secured a best finish of 14th place at the Malaysian Grand Prix, beating team-mate Timo Glock in the Drivers' Championship before being replaced by Jerome d'Ambrosio for the 2011 season.
F1, which currently uses V6 Hybird Turbo power units and has done since 2014, will see a change for 2021 with the removal of the MGU-H – an expensive technology that turns heat into electrical energy which in turn provides 50% of a power unit's hybrid energy.
As a figurehead for Formula E and electromobility, di Grassi believes that Formula 1 faces a fork in the road to its future while the FIA's premier championship should focus on itself from an entertainment perspective under owners Liberty Media:
“A hybrid car. It’s just a transition phase, you need to spend the money to make a combustion car and then you need to spend the money to make an electric car and then combine both," di Grassi told Motorsport Week ahead of the inaugural Zurich E-Prix – a race he went on to win.
"So it’s not efficient at all for the commercial industry and that’s why they are going, let’s say, they have two routes: Either they go full entertainment and they go fully combustion and they say, ‘ok, we’re not relevant to commercial cars or we are relevant to a niche of combustion cars’ and we go fully combustion and we focus on the nice show and the overtakes and fast cars and that’s it.
"Or, you go electric and you go commercially relevant. Hybrid does not really… It’s just a transition phase so that’s why they have to make [up] their minds.
"I think by scrapping the MGU-H, it’s clear that they are going more towards an entertainment platform with less technology, sorry, less commercial relevant way and more entertainment and I don’t think that’s bad," he continued.
"I just think that’s a route you need to follow so by saying that, I don’t think that it’s bad that they dropped the MGU-H. I think they should drop all of the MGUs from F1 and they should make a car that goes as fast as possible, with or without technologies.
"Just make them as fast as you can and that’s it. I think that’s what Formula 1 should be about. It should be about the extreme designs of cars to go as fast as you can with the current technology."
The removal of the MGU-H from Formula 1 in 2021 will be a key stepping stone in the series, with costs being reduced while a more level playing field could be created following years of domination from Mercedes and its superior power unit.
The removal of the MGU-H will see F1 lose its commercial relevance, however, with combustion cars slowly losing their appeal through law changes in countries across the world such as in the United Kingdom where the sale of all petrol and diesel cars will be banned in 2040 in an attempt to reduce air pollution.
"It doesn’t matter if they are commercially relevant or not," continued di Grassi.
"For commercially relevant technologies we already have Formula E so I think motorsport should be much more segmented into areas that they are specific for that design and not overlap between each other, so not going for WEC and F1 with hybrid and then Formula E and electric in Le Mans.
"Just segment it. [If] the manufacturer wants to develop one technology or another, they go through different routes and I think like this, they can co-exist," he concluded.
