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Formula 1 is undergoing a quiet revolution.

In two years' time, the cars that line up on the grid for the start of the 2013 season will be vastly different from those that raced in 2010.

Governing body the FIA has already announced that the current 2.4-litre normally aspirated V8 engines will be replaced by 1.6-litre turbocharged versions with integrated energy recovery systems.

Now, ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport can reveal that, driven by this , the cars will .

To the casual observer, they will still look like F1 cars and, importantly, will still go like them. But within the limitations of an open-cockpit, single-seater racing car with exposed wheels, they will be very different from current machines.

Gone will be the huge, snowplough front wings that have been required since the last major change of rules. Gone will be the high, chunky rear wings. Gone, too, will be the high-revving shriek of the engines.

In their place will be a car with much smaller front and rear wings and the much flatter, lower-pitched sound of a lower-revving turbo.

And critically - although largely invisible - there will be a shaped underfloor, replacing the flat bottoms that have been on F1 cars since 1983.

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, who has been given the 2010 for outstanding achievement in the face of adversity, has never seen his disability as an excuse not to succeed at the very highest level.

The owner of the has been a since breaking his neck in a car crash in March 1986 but he has continued to oversee his company with evangelical zeal and commitment. In fact its biggest successes came after his life-changing accident.

Williams does not so much love Formula 1 as he is consumed by it. He still goes into the factory seven days a week, with Christmas Day his only time off. And his ability to carry on regardless, resolutely refusing to let his disability affect his day-to-day work, continues to humble those who know him.

When Williams suffered his injury, at the age of 43, doctors pointed out to those close to him that, based on the examples of other people with similar problems, he would be lucky to live another 10 years.

Nearly 25 years later, Williams continues to attend most of the races in an increasingly marathon F1 calendar, and remains one of the most widely respected men in the sport.

His attitude to his disability is simple - it's his own fault he ended up that way so he had better just get on with it.

If he ever felt differently, there is no evidence for it.

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Tom Walkinshaw, , was one of the most powerful personalities in motorsport for nearly 30 years and, latterly, an influential figure in English rugby.

Walkinshaw's famous racing team won championships in touring cars and sportscars, as well as claiming the in 1988, giving Jaguar its first win in the race for more than 30 years in the process.

But Formula 1, motorsport's pinnacle, proved a tougher challenge. Although the Scot was instrumental in the success of the with from 1992-4, his attempts to conquer it with his own team eventually led to his downfall and exit from top-level motor racing.

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Formula 1 will be changed for ever by .

The decision to switch to vastly different, far more efficient engines from 2013 and the introduction of movable rear wings for next season will change both the way the sport is viewed by the wider world and the action on the track.

The new engine regulations - the adoption of 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbo engines with energy recovery and fuel restrictions - mirror the way the car industry is going and are aimed at boosting F1's public image, helping it to survive into the future by opening up new avenues for sponsorship and - most importantly - speeding up the adoption of more sustainable engines in road cars over the next few years, thus dramatically reducing carbon dioxide emissions.

More immediately, the controversial adoption of movable rear wings in 2011 will make overtaking easier. At least that's the hope.

The issue of overtaking is a perennial problem in F1. All stakeholders agree it has been too hard to do in recent years. Races can be processional, or turn on pit stops.

The problem for F1's bosses, who want racing rather than tactics to decide outcomes, is .

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I'll make this as simple as possible.

There will be two teams bearing the Lotus name in Formula 1 next year.

One, following , will be called Lotus Renault. That team will be part-owned by but their F1 cars will be called Renaults and will use Renault engines.

The other will be called . This one has nothing to do with Lotus Cars (any more - but we'll come back to that in a moment) but their F1 car will be called a Lotus. They will also use, er, Renault engines.

Both teams, it transpires, plan to run their cars in variations of a black and gold livery. This is an attempt to hark back to the historic John Player Special livery made famous by the original Team Lotus in the 1970s and 1980s through great drivers such as , , , and , and era-defining cars like the and .

It's a commentator's - and journalist's - nightmare and one can only begin to imagine the confusion it will create for those watching.

So what on earth is going on?

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The agreement for Formula 1 to switch to a new energy-efficient type of engine in 2013, , is the culmination of months of in-depth negotiations about one important aspect of the future of the sport.

Increasing F1's sustainability was a key aim of both Jean Todt - the president of governing body the - and the Formula 1 teams through their umbrella organisation Fota, and this move certainly makes a statement about that.

By replacing the current 2.4-litre normally aspirated V8 engines with 1.6-litre, four-cylinder turbos with energy recovery and fuel restrictions, F1 has deliberately mirrored the way road-car manufacturers are taking the cars we all drive on the road.

Fossil fuel supplies are running out and there is an ever-increasing pressure on resources, but there is no realistic replacement in sight for the internal combustion engine for some time to come, despite the hopes for zero-emission , for example.

In those circumstances, car manufacturers have no choice but to produce ever-more efficient engines.

That is already happening with 'hybrid' cars such as the and an increasing number of manufacturers rolling out .

But the manufacturers involved in F1 hope that by adopting these technologies in a glamorous, high-profile activity they can speed up their adoption by making them 'sexy'.

So whereas now high-performance and fuel economy/efficiency are regarded among the wider public as pretty much mutually exclusive, F1 can prove otherwise and by extension help in dramatically reducing the carbon dioxide emissions produced by road cars in the future.

They will do this by producing new engines that reduce fuel consumption by as much as 50% while retaining the same power and keeping competition as close as it has been in 2010.

It is not all about philanthropy, though. Inevitably, there is self-interest involved too.

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