Hydrogen has long been touted as the silver bullet to answer motorsport’s sustainability problem. Water is the sole byproduct of fuel cell vehicles using green hydrogen – that is, hydrogen produced by a process of electrolysis using renewable energy sources, rather than derived from natural gases where carbon monoxide is also emitted in its production – and a growing number of programmes are seeking to exploit its credentials. They range from internal combustion engines (ICEs) converted to run on hydrogen, which still emit some nitrogen oxides (NOx), to fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) that use hydrogen to power electric motors.

The first racing championship to run on fuel cell technology, Extreme H, will kick off next year, but there is little consensus on whether hydrogen will become widely used in racing, let alone at what stage. Significant hurdles must be overcome to fully win over sceptics yet to be convinced by factors of cost and safety, while battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have reached a point of technical maturity that seems a long way off yet for hydrogen, which is still in the early stages of being optimised.

Fuel cells are especially complicated. Through a process of reverse electrolysis, hydrogen meeting air is converted into electrical power, which uses up energy that contributes to making it less efficient than EVs using power stored in batteries. This factor, and the limited number of commercially available options using hydrogen propulsion as a consequence, goes some way to explaining why Toyota is the only major OEM to have publicly demonstrated the technology in a motorsport setting so far.

Those who have taken the plunge aren’t blind to the challenges, but they are optimistic.

“There’s a lot to do and a lot to have a look at, but it’s like a snowball at the moment,” says AVL Racetech motorsport director Ellen Lohr. “You see this snowball gets speed and suddenly there will be the point where it’s just rolling and being big and there. I personally think the ball is rolling already.”

AVL Ractech has produced a hydrogen combustion engine which it hopes will be used to make club-level series more sustainable

Photo by: AVL RaceTech

Why hydrogen interest is gathering

While Formula 1 has pursued sustainable fuels for a net zero exhaust emissions and a hike in the electrical contribution of its powertrain for its 2026 engine rules reboot, the impending 2030 ban on the sale of new petrol and diesel vehicles in the UK means the push for zero-emissions motorsport is gathering pace.

Hydrogen and BEVs become the two clear approaches to satisfy this criteria, but as hydrogen consultant to the Automobile Club de l’Ouest Bernard Niclot explains, BEVs are “not adapted for endurance racing”, with four laps at the Circuit de la Sarthe reckoned to be enough to drain most batteries. By contrast, hydrogen permits refuelling rates and range that are closer to conventional ICE cars and work in collaboration with battery technology used in EVs. While Niclot concedes that “it’s a huge challenge”, he is convinced that the zero-emissions solution for endurance racing “is a hydrogen option”.

His view is shared by Green Corp Konnection (GCK), the team behind a hydrogen fuel cell assault on the 2024 Dakar Rally, and which concluded that hydrogen is the best-suited zero-emission alternative to fossil fuel for long-distance cross-country rally raids.

"For me the great thing with hydrogen is the same feeling as the normal internal combustion engine and you get the sound" Jari-Matti Latvala

There are emotive factors involved in a pursuit of hydrogen too. Lohr, a DTM race winner with Mercedes in the 1990s, has overseen the creation of a hydrogen-powered ICE that is the first engine built in the history of AVL’s racing department, which until now has only sold software in its own name. The two-litre engine, which is anticipated to produce 300kW, is set to begin dyno testing soon and it is hoped to be sufficiently reliable by the end of the year to put into a physical car.

“I personally see a great future in hydrogen combustion and now the racer is speaking, because I love that with this technology you can keep the sound,” she says.

Toyota World Rally Championship boss Jari-Matti Latvala agrees. The Finn raced a Corolla powered by hydrogen ICE in the Fuji 24 Hours last year, while Toyota company president Akio Toyoda demonstrated a hydrogen ICE GR Yaris on a stage of the Ypres Rally last year. Toyota has also developed a liquid hydrogen-powered Corolla, but it was withdrawn from the opening round of the Super Taikyu season at Suzuka earlier this month following a testing fire.

“Hydrogen is something really interesting, it would be great to have in motorsport,” enthuses Latvala. “For me the great thing with hydrogen is the same feeling as the normal internal combustion engine and you get the sound.”

Toyota gave H2 ICE-powered Yaris a public demonstration on Rally Ypres last year

Photo by: Toyota Racing

Projects currently under way

MissionH24 has been at the vanguard for hydrogen motorsport, racing against conventional combustion LMP3 and GT3 cars in the European Le Mans Series-supporting Michelin Le Mans Cup series with its fuel cell racer. Built by GreenGT as part of a joint venture with the ACO, its ADESS LMP3-based H24 made its race debut last year and is evolved from the original LMPH2G that first appeared in practice sessions in 2019.

The goal, GreenGT technical manager Bassel Aslan explains, is “to be more competitive and to the level that you cannot even distinguish between a hydrogen car and a classical car”. But so far reliability and ironing out the foibles in the enormously complex system has been an equally important focus.

“You can imagine, we just got in the races and we will lose our credibility, lose our image if you see the car just stopped on the circuit, and this is why we put a huge effort there,” he says.

“Six months before the first race in Imola we worked a lot on this and we did a lot of tests tracing all the anomalies to work on them one by one, solving them, avoiding them stopping us on the circuit. All the sensors, all the actuators in the system and the accessories of the fuel cell and the actuator can really stop the whole car.”

According to Niclot, the ACO has considered hydrogen as a solution since GreenGT pulled its Garage 56 entry for the 2013 Le Mans 24 Hours, deeming its H2 car to be not sufficiently developed. To that end the ACO set up a working group, which first met in May 2018, with the goal of creating a hydrogen category for the World Endurance Championship and Le Mans.

It was originally planned for 2024 with suppliers for spec chassis, hydrogen tanks and electric powertrain communicated in January 2021. Manufacturers would be able to develop their own fuel cell technology. But delays induced by COVID mean a start date of 2026 at the earliest is anticipated.

“It’s clear that from this learning programme with H24 we have understood some tricky points that were not so obvious from the beginning, and we know we have to be attentive to these points for the development of the H2 category,” says Niclot. “So for me, this H24 programme is really doing the job we wanted.

“When you see where we were two years ago in terms of performance and where we are now, it’s really impressive. Now we are very close to GT3 cars and at that time we were 10 or 15 seconds behind.”

MissionH24 programme fields a fuel cell electric racer against conventional ICE technology in the Le Mans Cup series

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Having made a splash on the World Rallycross Championship by retrofitting a Lancia Delta to run on electric power, GCK plans to do the same with the Dakar-winning Peugeot 3008 DKR, which forms the basis for its e-Blast H2 hydrogen challenger. The final regulations have yet to be agreed with organiser the ASO, but project leader Cedric Challine of GCK Performance says significant progress has been made since a show car was revealed at last year’s event.

“We have the last evolution of tanks into the vehicle and also the last evolution of our fuel cell, which is at the moment on the [test] bench,” reveals Challine. “It will run in hard conditions really soon.”

The same hydrogen fuel cell that Guerlain Chicherit will use in the gruelling Saudi desert will also power snow groomers patrolling the Alpe d’Huez ski resort, which Challine points out will mean it has data from both temperature extremes that should “permit a lot of fast development”.

"You cannot say ‘I multiply by two the power’ because you need to have much more hydrogen on board if you want to make enough laps in a stint, and then you become embarrassed by the weight" Bernard Niclot

Meanwhile, a hydrogen offshoot of electric off-road series Extreme E, called Extreme H, is on its way for the second quarter of 2024. The brainchild of Formula E founder and alternative fuels visionary Alejandro Agag, its first prototype built by Spark Racing Technologies is set to begin testing in June. Having used hydrogen to power the Extreme E paddock, championship manager James Taylor is optimistic and feels that Agag’s track record makes for a good omen.

“We feel confident we understand it, we feel confident we know how to handle it, how to transport it and understand the risks as well,” he states. “Alejandro is a trailblazer, what he