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The present scenario in Formula 1 racing includes race cars built upon gasoline driven automobile engines. These engines on an average guzzle up to 70 liters of gas for every 100 kilometers of distance covered. This fact alone is sufficient to reveal how environmentally unfriendly the present technology of race cars may be considered.

In order to encourage entry of environment friendly race cars to the F1 events, beginning with the year 2009, the governing body Federation Internationale de L'Automobile, would now allow even hybrid automobiles to take part in the races. These cars can have an additional power up to 80 hp and at the same time would be engineered to lead to lesser CO2 emissions to cut back on pollution.

The focus is on incorporating two technologies, hybrid propulsion and regenrative braking. Though both the technologies have been around for sometime, what's different is their use in the Formula 1 racing domain.

Hybride electric vehicles combine the conventional gas based auto engine and a rechargeable energy storage system. Today's hybrids run on many types of drivetrain systms, which are also used to distinguish between these vehicles. Some of these systems are:

• Combined hybrid system: The wheels in this system can be powered by both electrical or mechanical transmission  as needed.This is made possible by the use of power-split devices that enable power paths from the engine to the wheels, and disconnect any one of the sources to let the other take over.

• Other Types: These vehicles are sometimes classified by the degree of hybridization as full hybrid or strong hybrid, power assist hybrid, mild hybrids and a plug-in hybrid. Sometimes they are categorized based on the source of power as electric (ICE) hybrid, fuel cell hybrid, hydraulic hybrid, pneumatic hybrid, human and environmental power hybrids.

• Regenerative braking systems or kinetic energy recovery system (KERS): This is the other technology to be employed controls vehicle speed by converting a portion of its kinetic energy (energy of motion) into another useful form of energy. The energy so produced could then be stored as electric charge in the automobile battery , or as compressed gas/air or in flywheels to be used again by the vehicle.

For instance a KERS using a compressed air system for a vehicle installed with a rotary sliding vane engine, a compressor, a combustion chamber and a motor may work as follows: The braking may be achieved by connecting the rotor of the compressor to a wheel and braking rotation of the rotor. Then the rotary motion of the compressor's rotor is used to generate compressed air, which is then stored in the surge tank to be utilized further.

Reportedly, BMW has initiated work and is supposed to use the technology in the 2009 Formula One season. It is additionally experimenting with using individual components such as supercapacitors and lithium ion batteries. Other car makers are soon to follow suit.

From a sport as popular as F1, that attracts an audience of 50 million people who completely follow it and over 300 million who catch some part of it, the world might be in for some breakthrough environment friendly technologies as they percolate into everyday transport.