F1 should drop V6s for old V8 engines - Red Bull's Christian Horner - F1 news - AUTOSPORT.com
Yup. Can't see many people opposed to this idea...Sucks that Bernie gave one of the Merc boys a seat somewhere important on the F1 board.
horners comments are quite valid of course, regarding costs...they are immense. IIRC it's 25m give or take from each of the manufacturer...that gives you 10 engine it total. That's 2.5m per engine. Factor in for all the renault boys 1 extra engine (that's 5m on top per renault team I think), and all the replacement parts which are presumably hugely expensive...it's ridiculous. I do think the noise has driven some spectators away but more serious is that I think it has driven a fair amount of TV audience away...and that's the one that really hurts F1, that's where the money is. Bernie was against the engines, as was Ferrari. Renault was indifferent I think and Mercedes was pushing it. If they atleast had a **** load of volume, the audience wouldn't mind so much.
One just thinks the other way round: does anyone assume that either Ferrari or Red Bull would give away an advantage for the sake of the sport??? And now they have spend quadrillions of dollars in an engine that was supposed to be within the regulations for the years to come just to dump it after one year? And who will be telling Honda that the engine they developed in the last months is nothing but an expensive paperweight? They all agreed on that so they have to take the consequences now. Whether they should have agreed on that is a total different question. For some reasons they (Ferrari and Renault) where all sure that they can get it right at their first attempt or why did they sign the freeze??? This might be not good for F1 (noise...) but this is certainly not the mistake of Mercedes.
Completely right of course. I partly blame Merc for being little babies and whinging ''ágree to these rules or else'' and a large part the hippy agenda of the FIA by setting these rules.
Consumers will tell F1 what to do. Stop watching TV, stop going to F1 websites, stop buying tickets if it does not excite you. Then they will change.
These engines are fine. They just need to let them eat! Get rid of the fuel restrictions and let's make some serious HP. Let the turbos and the rpms sing rather than moan.
I actually am against the idea. I'd shudder to think about going back to a format where Red Bull was dominant. Go back to V10's and make the aero more simple. Also full manual gearboxes. Also lose DRS and this hybrid crap, this aint sports car racing.
Going back to V8's doesn't suddenly hand victory to Red Bull once again; they have actually built a damn good car this year, it's just been hugely led down by the engine's reliability and power relative to Mercedes. Had the power been the same Mercedes and Red Bull would be fighting tooth and nail for every point still. WO5 has great traction but on aero I think Red Bull is still ahead, or rather caught up after the first few races. I would love to have the V10's back...maybe in a couple of years once they change formula they'll see sense and go to V10/V12's with some sort of hybrid system.
If going back to V8's doesn't suddenly hand victory to Red Bull then why point out that they have been let down by this year's engine? They have built a good car so going back to the V8s pretty much does hand victory back to Red Bull being that the Mercedes V8 wasn't as good as the Renault. Your point backs that up.
I'm all for the V8. Maybe do some sort of combo.. drop the turbo.. do something more with the ERS. I mean there's no reason they simply can't use the engines they had. I've said it before... I'm all for aero and downforce. Making cars LESS drivable doesn't make sense to me. I'd rather have them at the extreme limit of what the car can do. That's what'll highlight the driver's capability. At that point it'd be all about absolute precision driving. You miss the apex or pick an inefficient line and you are going to dramatically suffer. I don't car for seeing the car sliding all over the place or these crazy snap-back spins putting these guys into walls.
It seems shocking to me that they would want to return to that format.....NOT. There are currently 3 engine manufacturers in F1, soon to be 4 with the addition of Honda. Currently Mercedes has the most successful engine package with Renault and Ferrari behind. The prior 4 Manufacturers championships were won by Red Bull with a V8. Ferrari would probably like to go back to the V8 2.4 liter that they won with in 2007. Mercedes will fight any change as they would lose their advantage. By fighting for a return to V8's, Horner can back off the position and settle for opening up engine development, wherein that might be able to close the gap to Merc.
Red Bull are all about the show, their brand promotion and spending insane amounts to make sure that brand is associated with winning. It doesn't surprise me that they couldn't care less what engine is in their car, how cutting edge it is or how efficient. Only those given race budgets by automotive manufacturers care about it. Horner wants a formula constructed that gives his team an edge so he can justify his spending. The problem is so does everybody else. The fight seems to be manufactures against everybody else and it will be fascinating to see who wins.
How many races have you watched? Are you just a typical Vettel/RedBull hater or do you really believe what you just said? The RB10 has beat Ferrari, McLaren, and Williams a good portion of the season.
Most of the public watching F1 don't care what engine is at the back of the cars; all they want is nice looking cars, some noise and action on the track. That's what motor racing is all about !
But it's not really the RB engine though is it? The chassis and aero are bloody good that's why they have been somewhat competitive. If they had a ferrari engine they would be slightly better and if they had a merc engine tney wojld Be on par with merc. I think these regs need to stay in place for 5 years or so given the development costs. Then back to v10 hopefully
Good point. Ferrari have an even worse engine it would seem. Either way, both Ferrari and REnault have weaker, way weaker, engines than Merc
I don't hate Vettel or RB. I admire their previous achievements but the mighty have fallen this year and it doesn't take a genius to identify their Renault engine as the weakest link in their package. Let me ask you this- do you think RB would have won more races if it had been Merc powered?
I can't stand the V-6 engines. The "relevancy" to current auto technology is B.S. IMO. They sound terrible, the KER emphasis is dumb, and the fan base is leaving. Bernie - what do you think would happen to NHRA top fuel if they added electric motors to the specification? Or Front Wheel Drive? The fans would simply stop showing up.....