MOTORSPORT: Future of car racing revealed

The first real-world racing championship aimed at millennials will combine hydrogen power with SIM driving.

The HYRAZE League will have pairs of drivers – one in a car, one in front of a computer screen – and the results will combine their efforts from the real and virtual worlds.

They will compete in specially-developed two-seater racing coupes with a fuel-cell driveline using hydrogen power, with the series planned to start in Germany in 2023 before a global championship in 2025.

Innovations in the cars will include a system to capture any brake dust as well as steering that is completely drive-by-wire without a shaft to connect the driver to the wheels.

A high-powered group of Germany’s best automotive and technology companies is working together on the HYRAZE League but the father of the program is Hans-Werner Aufrecht, who has a 50-year history in motorsport as well as a founding role in the Mercedes-AMG high-performance road car business.

Aufrecht now heads the HWA motorsport company and says the thinking behind hydrogen-fuelled racing came as he considered the future of motorsport and the next generations of fans.

In some ways his conversion from petrol power to hydrogen is like the legacy of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist who invented dynamite before using his finances to establish the Nobel Prize program.

“If you have children and grandchildren you have to think about the legacy you leave. There cannot be any bigger motivation for me. I think this is my responsibility,” Aufrecht told carsales in a video link from Germany.

“I hope that motorsport is really innovative. Whether this will be enough for a Nobel Prize, I’m not sure.”

Tonight’s announcement of the Hyraze League did not include any financial details, nor any ties to major car-makers, but was heavy on technology and confirms backing by Germany's biggest auto club, ADAC.

The real-world racers will incorporate a hydrogen fuel-cell stack powering four electric motors that drive all four wheels, with an overall output of 800hp (596kW), a top speed of 250 km/h and a 0-100km/h sprint time of three seconds.

Just as importantly, the side-mounted hydrogen tanks will be protected by a carbon-fibre safety cell that will resist a 130-tonne lateral impact and the cars will recover up to 80 per cent of energy lost during braking with a system that includes harvesting driveline friction.

In the virtual world, HYRAZE League is working on proprietary software for the best eRacing integration.

The technical chief of the program, Martin Marx of HWA, says the program has been underway for more than two years and prototype testing will begin in 2021 and continue through 2022 before the start of racing.

“We love challenges. We love what we do. Wherever technology comes into play, doors open,” Marx says.

“There are a high number of innovations. It’s not just a hydrogen-driven race car. The heart of the vehicle is the battery. It’s about feeding and extracting energy as quickly as possible.”

Racing is planned to begin on traditional motorsport circuits but, just like the battery-powered Formula E category for single-seaters that has attracted many high-profile car companies including Porsche and Mercedes-Benz, the HYRAZE League partners are considering pop-up city circuits to reach younger fans.

Aufrecht says motorsport must change to capture younger fans and build a stronger connection to the gamers of the virtual world.

“We took a closer look at motorsport and we have defined that the average age of spectators… is growing, it’s older. Today, not every young boy at the age of 18 wants to have a driver’s license,” he says.

“We will start with an E-sports series that will give the feeling of sitting in a proper race car. To win over the young people in the future.

“This is the reinvention of motorsport. We have to develop and convey new technologies. We are convinced that this is the technology of the future and motorsport is the key to present it to the people.”