Written by Ollie Lewis, Edited by Sharifah Zaqreeztrina
In recent years, a new kind of engine technology has been quietly emerging. Unlike fossil fuels, the only tailpipe emission is water. Unlike hydrogen fuel cells, things still go bang.
We have known that hydrogen is quite explosive for some time, with the most documented lesson in this topic being the Hindenburg Disaster in 1937. Hence, this will certainly put people off the idea of using something so volatile and voluntarily exploding it in motorsport.
However, its potential has recently been realised by automotive companies such as Toyota, who have invested heavily in both fuel cell and combustion technology.
Arguably, this is one of the most exciting developments in the motorsport world currently as, if you know where to look, it is being actively being developed and refined in front of our eyes.
Toyota currently dominates the industry, but with such a large and influential company backing technologies like hydrogen combustion then there is clearly some potential that has been recognised. Toyota could provide the tools required to help this technology become a true contender in the alternative fuels race.
Toyota Corolla
Many may consider the Toyota Corolla to be rather mundane, but Toyota are currently using the Gazoo Racing (GR) Corolla as a testbed for their hydrogen combustion technology in motorsport.
The GR Corolla is already a fast car, sharing similar attributes as the GR Yaris, which has become well-known for its capabilities on track and on the dirt in WRC.
One of the most unique features of Toyota’s developments is that they can be applied to most gasoline engines with minimal modifications, so quick and exciting cars such as the GR Corolla and GR Yaris can retain their sportiness.
This was keenly demonstrated at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2023 and 2024, when British actor Rowan Atkinson did several demonstration runs up the hill. During the timed shootout, the GR Yaris also managed to finish 28th overall, showcasing that it was still quick despite the modifications.
Where Toyota’s ambitions get truly exciting, however, is in the endurance racing scene. The 24 Hours of Fuji signified the first ever competitive hydrogen-based entry when Toyota entered the Toyota Corolla GR H2, where it participated in the race for the first time in 2021.
In 2023, the No 32 Corolla GR H2 completed the race with 25 pitstops, which was 16 fewer than in 2022 where they had to stop approximately 41 times.
This is mostly due to how Toyota was storing the hydrogen, as they made the switch from gaseous hydrogen to liquid hydrogen, allowing for greater storage density. This meant the range tripled from only 50 km per tank to 150 km per tank. With a 300% improvement in range in just a year, who knows where they will be in a few years.
However, there are logistical issues still needed to iron out before this becomes a truly feasible option for Toyota to be competitive as liquid hydrogen needs to be stored at -253˚C, which is not easy to achieve in limited spaces in terms of size and regulation such as pitlanes.
Furthermore, other additional components within the engines are still being developed, such as a special fuel pump used to transfer the liquid hydrogen into the cylinders. In 2023, they used three of these pumps throughout the race but this has been reduced to just one in 2024, again showing how quickly Toyota are developing this technology.
As we’ve seen in the past, whether it is Mazda’s rotary success with the 787B or Audi’s success in the 2010s with their diesel prototype, the proving grounds for largely untested technology is certainly during endurance races, where the brutality of the track, changing conditions and high loads on the cars can cause fatal errors.
GR H2 Racing
On the other end of the scale, Toyota is also developing a bespoke prototype race car which will compete at the infamous 24 Hours of Le Mans. While the year of entry remains unclear, it has been stated that we might see it on track as early as 2026.
The GR H2 car features a LMH style hybrid system, and its chassis looks as though it is a refreshed version of the GR010, Toyota’s current gasoline-powered Le Mans contender.
Little else is known about the car, such as whether it features an all-wheel drive system or whether Toyota are aiming to be competitive with it or whether it will be another test race.
At the moment, it seems as though its main competition will be the H24EVO, a hydrogen concept car developed by Mission H24, billed to enter the event in 2027.
Versatility
One of Toyota’s main aims with their hydrogen combustion engine technology is to make it as flexible as possible, to reduce the likelihood of needing to replace every current combustion engine car on the road with their electric counterparts.
To demonstrate the versatility of their technology, they took an AE86 Corolla from the 1990s with a classic 4A-GE 1.6L engine, which became known for its reliability, and they converted it to run on hydrogen.
Unfortunately, the aesthetics of this resto-mod was somewhat ruined by the large hydrogen tank in the back which was required for storage, highlighting one of the key issues faced by hydrogen development at the moment.
While there was no practical benefit to doing that, it purely demonstrated that even cars that are sometimes considered ‘classics’ can be converted into an ‘eco-car’ with relative ease.
On the other hand, it could also prove that hydrogen can be used in the lower echelons of motorsport if the conversions are as easy as they appear to be, relatively speaking of course.
However, in the higher levels of motorsport such as F1 and WEC this might not be possible as the engines currently used are so finely tuned to provide the most power available from the fuel provided so they could be sensitive to the change.
However, updates and redesigns are vital in these series if a team is to remain competitive, so there is nothing to say the cars won’t be adapted in the future to run on petrol, hydrogen or even synthetic fuels.
It is especially difficult to determine what the future fuel of motorsport may be, as new technologies spring up all the time. Superlight batteries could become a reality, a perfect synthetic fuel could be found or a magic pill could be developed which negates the emissions of diesel.
However, amongst all of these possibilities, there is nothing to suggest that hydrogen cannot be right up there among every other option.
After all, as Akio Toyoda said, ‘I wouldn’t invest in this technology if I didn’t think we could win with it.’
Comentários