Thank Frankel it's Friday: Could hybridisation not be the future of fast cars?

The Porsche blitzed the Nurburgring lap record for production cars, while McLaren implied theirs was at least as fast though coyly refused to publish a time. The Ferrari – well it was the most powerful and at least on paper the lightest – so in power to weight terms at least it should have been the quickest of them all. 

So I think we all naturally put two and two together and concluded that this new found pace was a result of their hybrid drives because that’s what made them different. We might even have subconsciously concluded that in future any car that wished to compete with them would have first to become similarly configured.

But then three things happened: one was the Lamborghini Huracan Performante that bit a five-second chunk out of the 918’s lap time, despite being an entirely conventional road car costing one quarter of the price, then Porsche repaid the compliment with its new GT2 by going entire five seconds quicker even than the Lambo with no need for a hybrid at all. The third thing was the NextEV Nio EP9, which may not be a standard production car like the Porsche or Lambo but for now at least stands as the fastest purely electric road car ever to lap the Nurburgring.

All of which rather made me wonder what the fiendish mechanical complexity and horrendous development costs of hybrid drives were doing for the hypercars that have them, because that will have direct implications for the forthcoming generation of hybridised performance cars that mere mortals such as most of us might be able to afford.

And I concluded while hybridisation might be doing all sorts of things for these cars, making them faster appeared not to be one of them. A comparison between Porsche’s new GT2 RS and the 918 Spyder hypercar makes interesting reading. The Spyder is almost 200bhp more powerful but, even in lightweight ‘Weissach pack’ configuration, it’s a little over 200kg heavier. Nevertheless, it has a significant power to weight advantage over its younger brother. It also has the traction advantage of four-wheel drive, no turbo-lag and theoretically a more optimal mid-engined configuration. So why is it slower?

There are a couple of variables here: from what I’ve been able to figure out, the GT2 RS actually has a little more downforce than the Spyder, though 50kg at 186mph isn’t going to make a whole lot of difference to a lap time. Second, tyre technology has moved on even from where it was when the 918 was breaking records at the ‘Ring, and that’s likely to be a more significant factor. But perhaps not as significant as those two hundred extra kilos: the engine’s power may be able to more than cancel this disadvantage while accelerating in a straight line but in every braking zone and in every corner those kilogrammes are holding the 918 back. And the Nurburgring has a very large number of corners.

So let’s look at the McLaren now. It’s more difficult because there are no stated lap times but I’ve had enough nods and winks to be very confident that its new 720S supercar is at least – at least – as quick around the Nurburgring as the old P1 hypercar despite offering only 710bhp compared to 903bhp and not being able to drop its ride height and triple its spring rate when on track. And, so far as I’m aware, no road car has yet generated more downforce than the P1. But the P1 is over 100kg heavier than the 720S, a fact that appears to negate its other in-built advantages. Speaking for myself, I’d be surprised if the P1’s hybrid system was significantly better than performance-neutral.

So what’s the point of going to all that time and expense if the car is no quicker as a result? Well, lap time is only one consideration. In a turbocharged car like the P1, the hybrid literally eliminates turbo lag, making the car much easier and nicer to drive. The forthcoming Mercedes-AMG Project One has better throttle response from its 1.6-litre turbo Formula One engine than an old 2.4-litre normally aspirated V8 F1 unit. Hybrid allows the manufacturer to parade its environmental and technological credentials and it can be used to provide an electric-only mode (useful when city centres start insisting on zero emissions). Also hybrid is still a very new technology: even in the five years since they appeared, the game has moved on so much that if Porsche, Ferrari and McLaren were making such cars again, they’d already all be significantly different.

But hybrid will always add weight, whether it is to a hypercar or a shopping car and excess weight is a waste of precious natural resources and the enemy of efficiency. Carrying two different forms of power provision, with one often carrying the other as an effective dead weight cannot ultimately be the answer. It provides a necessary bridge to the future but no more and its span is looking shorter than ever. And that future may be bright or otherwise, but it is going to be electric, a fact we’re all just going to have to get used to.