TheEngineer wrote:Lemon_Newton-Metre wrote:TheEngineer wrote:[snip] Why? The hot pits are for refueling. swapping batteries would be refueling.
(more snipping)
I respectfully disagree, in two respects:
a. "Fuel" for the gasoline and diesel engine vehicles refers to the respective liquids, which are combustible, that contain energy, and that go into containers permanently installed in the vehicles. The 'fueling' rules relate to "fueling" those vehicles.
b. "fuel" for batteries would have to relate to "re-energizing" the material contained in the batteries, not replacing the containers themselves. Otherwise, a case could be made that a 'plug-in' "fuel" tank [like connecting an air wrench] would be the same as replacing the batteries.
I think this is just getting hung up on schematics. Swapping a battery pack is roughly equivalent to refilling a gas tank. I agree recharging batteries is best done away from the hot pits, but swapping them in and out of a car is the EV equivalent to dumping gasoline into your car.
Saying that allowing battery swaps will lead to hot swapable fuel tanks is just plain silly.
Schematics, semantics. Again, I respectfully disagree about the battery swaps:
When I drive to NYC and I need to refuel, I have some professional in NJ put fuel in my empty tank. And I can have that done, because there's nothing in the tank except the air which has taken the place of the energy-containing substance which used to occupy that volume. Which has been removed to power the engine through the course of the race.
If I had an electric vehicle, I wouldn't be swapping battery packs, I'd be recharging, connected via a cable.
The argument that swapping battery packs is roughly equivalent to refueling Is flawed. Be honest: it's a workaround to the time limitations of charging vis-a-vie dumping fuel.
And, I don't believe the argument about hot-swappable fuel tanks is silly per se, but that _is_ my point: reducto ad absurdem.
[I don't know what connection method they use, but some military jets use external fuel tanks, which they can disconnect and drop in-flight, right? NOT RECOMMENDING THIS - just sayin']
Again, I think this rule change is just a thought experiment, though, an interesting one.
What _would_ be appropriate rules regarding full-EV vehicles [considering current technology and its limitations? What sort of infrastructure? A standardized battery pack and handling equipment? A separate area?
Could it be that full-EVs just have a transponder which has to be carried around the track, driver-to-driver, vehicle-to-vehicle? That seems simplest to me. Like EZ-pass, just really, really fast!
And when the rules diverge enough, would it really be 'winning a race outright', or would it be more like an area code overlay? That is, not a different class of the same 'thing', but a different 'thing' racing on the same track at the same time.