Formula 2 and 3 bosses are in early talks for a more sustainable future with the series, involving hybridisation and the use of biofuels.
CEO Bruno Michel has confirmed that although talks have begun and are in an early stage, the current iteration of Formula 2 and Formula 3 machinery will remain largely unchanged for the next three years.
The financial issues exaggerated by COVID-19 have meant that teams are unwilling to purchase an entirely new car at this stage, but the championship is trying to make racing in the series more sustainable in the near future.
Since 2014, hybrid technology has been an essential component of the F1 power unit with the next generation of engines, scheduled for 2025, set to make more use of sustainable biofuels.
Michel has said that F2 and F3 are asking the same questions as F1 in how to make the series more environmentally friendly.
“We have made the decision not to change the F2 car for the next three years and we are going to do the same for F3 in the future because at the moment nobody wants to buy a new car,” said Michel.
“The present cars are doing the job in terms of performance and in terms of learning for the drivers to get to the next category. It is doing the job from a show point of view because the races are absolutely outstanding in F2 and F3 and we don’t want to change that.
“After that at some point we will need to ask ourselves questions about environment, maybe hybrid, maybe biofuel, so those are things we are discussing at the moment. But they are not going to be in the short-term because we don’t want to add a massive cost to the teams by making a new car in the short future.
“We will of course have to think about it and we are already thinking about it at the moment.”
Despite the current F2 and F3 chassis being frozen for the next three years, Michel isn’t ruling out an upgrade kit coming to the series to kickstart the sustainability drive ahead of schedule:
“We always have the possibility to make what we call an upgrade kit like we did last year for F2 with the 18-inch tyres. That was not just changing tyres and the rims, there were quite a lot of changes on the car itself.
“That is what we are not doing any changes now as we did this big change last year which we were supposed to do one year before F1, but now it will be two.
“We always have the possibility to make a change to the car without re-designing the car. Maybe in one year or two years’ time we might do that but we won’t completely change the car for another three years from now.”