The new MP4-X concept car is what happens when a big-budget Formula One team like McLaren gathers all of its brainiacs for a round table discussion on the future of motor racing, and then goes to town designing a new car.
As bonkers as the result is, McLaren says that all of the crazy tech featured here is possible. Maybe not now, but one day. And boy, do we mean crazy ...
The MP4-X is a single seater race car just like the current crop of high-tech F1 machines that race 19 Sundays a year, but that’s where the similarities end. The body structure, for instance, is made from a material which can deform in a crash and then return to its original shape. This would create a safer place for drivers to sit but also make multiple crashes in a single race possible. Some of the car’s body panels can also capture solar energy and use the power to supplement existing hybrid drivetrains, and instead of storing the electricity in a battery pack as is currently the case, it would be kept in ‘thin batteries’ which comprise part of the crash structure.
But wait, there’s more. What are usually permanently affixed sponsor decals would instead be a digital billboard. Just like web pages viewed by specific people, signage on the car could be altered to more relevantly suit different consumers. Basically, fans in the USA could see a car finished in Oreo cookies livery, while at the same time in South Africa they’d see Ouma rusks branding.
The MP4-X gets a closed cockpit with a canopy designed specially to protect a driver’s head, but adaptive transparency levels would also allow viewers to see inside the cockpit. The continuously variable tint would also improve drivers’ visibility in changing light conditions. Normal on-board cameras would also be done away with, and a new visual system would sync with a driver’s view so fans can sit in on a race in first person.
And here’s the real kicker: drivers of this car wouldn’t control it with steering wheels or pedals. A completely far-out technology developed in partnership with pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) would monitor drivers’ brainwaves and move the car in accordance with what they’re thinking. This telepathic control could be extremely interesting in the case of divers like Pastor ‘what was he thinking’ Maldonado.
Star Motoring