KCMG’s New Hybrid F4 Car, The Future of Entry-Level Single Seaters?

It’s a busy weekend at Vallelunga for KCMG’s Paul Ip, as a driver, for Team Hong Kong in the Reno Racing-prepped Honda NSX GT3 Evo alongside Marchy Lee, but also as the supplier of the brand new KCMG KC MG-01 F4 car, the first hybrid single-seater outside of F1 and the first F4-spec car with the Halo device, something which will become mandatory in the formula from 2021.

The 20 brand new cars are being prepped for the weekend’s event by Hitech GP and all cleared their first timed session this morning with no issues, quite a feat for 20 brand new cars.

The back story behind the new car has some real motorsport heritage, the potential for what was then envisaged as a potential F4 ‘World Final’ a discussion between Paul Ip, the late Charlie Whiting, and YCom’s Nicola Scimeca at Macau just last year!

With so many different configurations of F4 car, different chassis, tyre suppliers and OEM engine suppliers, a difference equating to c.60 kilos between the lightest and heaviest, a ‘gathering of the clans’ would have proved to be near impossible.

However with the emergence of the FIA’s Motorsport Games concept, a plan came together very quickly, KCMG were successful in bidding for the contract to supply 20 cars, for 3 year’s exclusive use by the event (in no small part to ensure no advantage for any driver coming into the event).

The car was designed by KCMG with their nominated technical supplier Ycom, with all composites produced in Taiwan by KCMG Composites, “The quality has been very, very impressive,” Nicola Scimeca told DSC today at Vallelunga, “for such a new car it has passed every test we have thrown at it, including one that I know other comparable single-seaters would struggle with:”

Each car was presented to the teams in a lottery, the competitors drawing lots for which car would be allocated to which entry, and the body panels then swapped accordingly.

“Every part fitted perfectly first time.  We had prepped a room to allow us to adjust carbon panels to fit, it has not been used once.”

Paul Ip is justifiably proud of progress thus far “We started the design and build process in late December and the first car tested in hybrid specification in May.”

It’s the hybrid powertrain that is attracting most attention with the certainty that other formula cars will very soon follow suit.

The cars are powered by a 176bhp Abarth 1.4 litre turbo-charged engine with a 12kW Magnetti Marelli hybrid MGU (around 10% of additional power), the car harvesting power in a superconductor (mounted underneath the fuel tank) under heavy braking, and deploying its boost under acceleration, the difference can be felt, and equates to 3-4 kph additional speed per deployment.

“All of the major powertrain elements are OEM products, including the hybrid components which are used in industrial as well as automotive applications,” said Scimeca.

That means that the cost base is relatively low, and whilst the weight penalty for the drive is relatively high in motorsport terms, as a one-make formula there is no disadvantage for any individual driver. 

The ‘spec’ and ‘off-the-shelf’ aspects of the powertrain.