I think that hybrid cars in the States is still a niche market - perhaps in 5-10 years it will be larger. But IMO it will never demand the passion of pure HP and the sounds and smells that helped to make autosport glamorous, dangerous and so on.
The thing is, here in the states, hybrids *aren't* a niche market. They're very common, people have them and aren't even conscious of the "HYBRID" emblem on the sides of their trucks. I don't know what the numbers
are, but I'd guess I see 1 in 7-8 vehicles on the "republican" side of town, maybe 1 in 10-12 on the "lesser affluent" area. That's not counting all of the Priuses and the occasional Leaf and Volt. It's also not counting
the couple of Teslas I spot every week.
Which gets back to my point: F1 missed that boat LONNNNNG ago. There is nothing special about a small displacement hybrid arrangement: Joe Construction Worker drives a hybrid pickup to work everyday. Boring.
Conversely though, just because people wanted to race "road cars" in the past doesn't mean it was about racing ROAD car technology.
There was a time when powerful cars were relatively cheap. They were also simple enough that Joe Average could figure out how to modify them to make more power. Out of that came "car racing".
All of those parameters have changed over time. The guy working at McDonald's can't afford to buy the equivalent of a V8 Dodge Dart today. The guy that *can* afford to buy a new car - the electronics and engineering makes
"home modification" beyond his scope. He's not able to bolt on a 4 barrel carb over the weekend, or a new intake manifold. All that's left is the Ever Present Cold Air Intake. And why would he want to? Chances are he's in hock with the new car,
and he's too busy, things cost more, it is not the 60's or 70's.
Making race cars hybrid is the most daft notion ever concocted: "road car relevance". Because of the overwhelming popularity of Prius racing? Because of the massive movement of teenagers hot rodding their hybrid Camrys? Because kids
are putting posters up on their walls of a hybrid Chevy pickup that their dad drives, and thinking "wow, just imagine all of that energy it's saving!!!!"?
Really?
There is no soul in F1 anymore, and little inherent substance for the pure racer, or the pure engineer. Confabulation being marketed as "the pinnacle of racing".
Nobody that is a racing fan would come up with these rules and regs. We all know it.