Winter Is Coming

It’s an irony of the industry that the ‘off-season’ is often the busiest time.

- Chris Aylett

Most motorsport businesses can reflect on another good year as this season comes to a close. The majority of championships created exciting racing which should attract more partners and audiences in 2018, and most technical regulations proved to be up to the task, allowing for the usual crop of criticism.

We enter the busy winter period with various new technical challenges to be met, which bring a boost in business as these need to be developed and delivered quickly. Such is the cycle in the motorsport industry, and long may it continue.

The annual future technology conference of the MIA (EEMS) on the Wednesday before the Autosport show in January will be particularly interesting. Experts will share their vision of the two separate streams of technology which will affect motorsport over the next five years. On the one hand, hybrid solutions requiring super-efficient ICE, and on the other, the response from motorsport to the huge investments being made by the automotive sector in electric drive.

Electric drive

I expect the various hybrid solutions to remain in motorsport for longer than many believe, and create plenty of profitable challenges needing solutions. However, while activity in electric powertrains is already involving more motorsport companies, the conference will discuss how best we can rise to the challenge of making electric-powered sport entertaining, and how we can attract a new younger audience.