With so much to talk about and to digest after the Bahrain tests, Peter in this livestream will be taking your questions and comments with special guest Gavin White, the CEO and Co-Founder of About:Energy, the battery-focused consultancy that works with such industry leaders as Porsche and Mercedes. Gavin completed his PhD at Imperial College London, measuring the thermal properties of lithium-ion cells; and, prior to this, studied Mechanical Engineering at Queen’s University Belfast. Whilst there, Gavin completed an 18-month placement at Aston Martin, which makes his appearance on this show all the more enticing. This livestream will be followed by a members’ back stage stream in which Craig Scarborough and Peter will discuss Gavin’s input and the future of battery power in F1.
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42 Comments
A great topic & guest Peter!! As a kid watched F1 & raced RC cars, assembling scaled high performance battery packs often at times adding extra cell(s).. Keep it coming Sir
This is why Ford/Red Bull.
Probably one of the most relevant f1 YouTube videos I've seen in the preseason technical stuff. Isn't the battery basically under the fuel cell right behind the driver to keep the c of g low. Wonder if they've done any battery overheating simulations.
Has to pre spool…batteries that can't handle the load, is this really F1 anymore?
Basically Fernando is correct, the chef can drive the car because most is computer controlled
Thank you Peter for inviting Gavin for a very informative podcast.🙏
i was wondering if rimac plays a similar role / does anyone know
Motor racing fans don't care about complicated power units. All we want is fabulous racing.
"Real passion about batteries" sounds like my job interviews
Ask Mark slade what he knows about the ECAT systems
Excellent podcast!
Your podcast is a must-watch masterclass for understanding the upcoming F1 season!!! A never-miss for me!!!!!
i'm a huge motorsport fan, so naturally i want to replace motors with batteries. make it make sense
Thanks!
Thanks for this top class journalism
Always love keeping up with your podcasts, nobody does it better !
Every sentence from the guest taught me something new. Very nice
Will vary lap to lap. I love that. It’s making the cars less homogenious. Like it used to be.
Very nice insight, great guest envious about the office location and more 🙂
The more we learn the weirder I find the new systems… imagine your driving through a corner and are slowly applying more and more throttle, now you have a preprogrammed AI bot applying more throttle than the pedal tells it to (probably what’s left in the ICE) and countering that with the energy taken up buy the generator recharging the battery… what could possibly go wrong when the battery is full the pedal position requires 100% ICE or more… all these processes of charging, ICE throttle, E-throttle are managed by a computer, not the driver I mean how could the driver control all that it’s impossible.
So now an intelligent preprogrammed (learning ?!) Computer manages a lot of the cars power systems…
I so understand Max‘s remark about formula E on steroids… though it sounds a lot like Hemorrhoids aka pain in the bum to me
I saw the MGU-H as one of the techniques that makes sense in every day cars, gives you quick throttle response and minimizes turbo lag so allows Anstreicher to get away with an even smaller engine and make it more efficient by that…
Clearly Audi being more on the dieselgate side of things has other priorities in mind than energy Efficiency and cleaner drive systems…
🤦🏼♂🤦🏼♂🤦🏼♂🤦🏼♂🤦🏼♂
Cheers from Bavaria, Germany
Should have delayed cars till 28 and tested new cars more was close racing in 25 with McLaren and Redbull…
Everyone talking about Mercedes not many talking about that fact that they used 4 power units over 2 weeks of Bahrain…
Fantastically informative guest, thank you !
FWIW I think this battery rubbish is going to destroy F1. I got 30 seconds into the video before boredom kicked in. If I want to watch battery cars I'll go to a toyshop. While technology is quite interesting, it's not racing. You should know that better than anyone…
How much of the charge/discharge cycle can be learned through real-time telemetry, and refined during the run, by on-board systems?
What happened to the front fenders? I'm glad they've gone.
Thanks, Peter—really nice questions, as always. I especially enjoyed the question, “What were you into as a kid?” Great insight.
Thanks Peter – you keep knocking it out of the park mate! Great Stuff! – Alex
Great interview and highly informative; I was just reading about the recent solid-state battery tests as they're supposedly (finally) going to market commercially – the anode/cathode on that one (laptop-sized) require FIFTY, not 5-10 atmospheres of pressure for proper performance. Super cool engineering, but questionable practicality – much like how a 600c battery is applicable to road cars and 'courts OEMs'. Personally, I feel we are getting robbed by not knowing who each team/PU are working with for their pack and cell design or if they're doing it primarily internally. That would give a MUCH better picture of the grid and the variance between cars that we'll likely see this year.
On a separate note, I think the energy recovery/deployment regulations are a disaster that was easily predictable from the start. The technology is simply not there for F1 to avoid becoming a dial-turning championship. Sure, that was always part of it, but with 50/50 split, less fuel and measurement of maximum energy vs. fuel flow, and the deployment/recharge regs that currently exist I think F1 is going to be a contrived spectacle where the value of a fast racing driver is dramatically lower relative to one who is consistently Perez vs. Max levels of slower but better at managing the deployment/harvesting.
That is NOT the F1 I love and coupled with the ridiculous move to AppleTV risks alienating people like myself who are super into the racing and attend multiple races per year. I imagine there being tons of overtakes/craziness, but it being 90% battery deployment optimization… it will make DRS look like high art. There was already so much management – I fear we will see just how absurd this has become by summer.
I really benefitted from this !! Thanks Peter and Gavin for such an illuminating (oops, wrong word !! ) discussion. I'm much clearer about the whole thing now . I just hope the RACING will still be good , and perhaps …even a bit better ..
Peter,
Thank you for doing this excellent chat with Gavin. This is the sort of ‘stuff’ that I really enjoy, of course, including Scarb’s and his insights. This was extremely informative, so thank you.
Please plan on doing more of the sorts of interviews/chats.
I'm about half way through and the more of this battery talk I hear the more I hate it in motor racing. This may be the final nail in the F1 coffin for me after 35 years watching. I'll give it a go but I can see this year not being too great for F1 motor racing fans. TBH it's only really been Verstappens driving kept me keen the last few years and certainly not the cars. Watching races from 20 years ago and the cars look like they are being driven rather than controlled in a game. It actually makes me quite sad.
Belfast yeooow!
Absolutely fascinating. F1 , the next frontier. Gavin White is amazing. Thanks Peter for sharing his brilliance.
Absolutely brilliant episode with really great insight. Thanks for that!
I don’t like at all the idea of battery deployment by GPS location!!! Who’s driving? Charles says I’ll decide when I do and when I don’t want power! That’s what I’m here for!!
Really interesting chat and questions. Thanks!I'm sure there's a good reason, but with the requirement for super-fsst charge and discharge, I was wondering at what point batteries are the wrong solution and you just want capacitors instead?
thank you mr.Windsor and Gavin for explaining to us that dont know much about electricity!!! HATS OFF
who would thought that so much power is in that battery.After listening Gavin there is so much information that i /we can understand whats happening with EV these days
thank you very much
I am very appreciative of Gavin’s knowledgeable input into this podcast. There’s lots of information that he can neither confirm nor deny that the wonderful world of F1 won’t allow him to say! But this was good stuff and the confirmation that battery powered transatlantic flights and battery powered supertankers and rockets are Impossible due to energy density issues is noted and demolishes some La La Land thinking by others.
Imagine getting to 2026 and still not understanding the true origin and purpose of climate alarmism. And yet here we are, with even Peter Windsor bamboozled by this globalist cult that has ruined everything. Nobody ever discusses the actual problem. There is no climate crisis. "Net zero" would kill billions of people. And still these fools never even question it. Astonishing.
Amazing interview. I now understand a lot more regarding the new F1 regs. What an intelligent young man Gavin is.
F1 is now nothing less than a commercial show, it’s no longer racing. Once the next global recession hits this show will end.
He has an interesting dialect, "them systems".