Luca Di Montezemolo not surprised by Mercedes dominance

Mercedes and Renault pressed hard for this and had the FIA vote (FIA's vision of greenness fitted this nicely). Bernie was against the engines, predicted they would sound **** and not sure if they'd be so cheap as Mercedes/Renault said. Ferrari was against them, too. At first the engines would be 4 cilinder but Ferrari argued it wasn't road relevant for them and wanted V8 at least. They reached a comprimise on V6. Meanwhile, this didn't matter much: Mercedes especially was far ahead of the curve, they couldn't care less if it was a V4, V6, V8 or V12 even...as long as the hybrid got pushed through. IIRC Mercedes had a very good working concept already in 2012, all what was needed was the convincing of rules and perfecting. The insistence that engines couldn't be modified post winter testing was their masterstroke, whoever approved that is a monumental idiot.

Ecclestone doesn't write the rules, the FIA does. Bernie isn't the FIA.

 

+1

 

Bernie was correct. They certainly sound shi$e

 

The lesson from this is that the players shouldn't be allowed to dictate the rules.

Once you put multi-nationals in position of influence in a sport, they will serve their interest, not the sport in general.

 

Yep. Mercedes cried ''we'll leave the sport if you don't bow down to our rules''. Not sure what Renault said, considering they only made engines and surely where profitable at that. No development anymore at that point, just rake in the cash from supplying the WDC team and ride their coattails to the next championship (ok they got their panties in a twist and claimed they didn't get much recognition, but whatever).

FIA went along with it because A) it would serve their green ideology and B) felt F1 could use a shakeup (instead of tackling the aerodynamic rules properly)

 

The reason F1 is not exciting these days.

 

The harsh reality is that F1 has had far more unexciting seasons than it has ever had exciting seasons, even when the cars had larger capacity, normally aspirated engines and sounded better!

 

I am still kicking myself for not attending a F1 race when we had screaming v12's.

 

Those were the days! I remember them well! in the 70's you could really tell from a long way who was out on track... BRM v12, Ferrari Flat 12, Matra V12, Ford Cosworth - V-8 all of them had a distinct sound - the Matra's were loudest and highest pitched - oddly followed by the Ford's... BRM was not very melodic... Ferrari always sounded good as they went by... from time to time you had Alfa in there and Renault.... the Renault when it first came out was SO un inspiring ...

in the 90's all the cars were Atmo... and you had V-12, Flat 12, V-10, V-8's from all kinds of manufactures.. it was a symphony of sound. At Paul Ricard - you could hear them wind up as they came out of the left turn onto the Mistral .... un believable... noise. The V-8 era just before the turbos were loud -but that was it - just loud, they all sounded exactly the same.

 

Just attend the Ferrari racing days, Corse Clienti or classic F1 races.....you'll love it...walk around the pit lane, see the tech.....

Some cars are very high pitched making you close your ears, others resonate in your stomach and lungs, noise can be very different but equally violent......

 

I agree, and, I think 2014-2016 V6's were more exciting races than the races with the V8's they replaced.

 

Excellent post capturing how amazing the sounds used to be. I remember being in Montreal and hearing how different the Ferrari V12 sounded from the Honda V12 that sounded different than the Lamborghini V12. Each of the V10s also sounded different. A large piece of the passion and excitement died with these new power units. Life moves on, I just do not need to go to races anymore as I cannot justify the expense and using vacation time for the poor quality product that Formula 1 has become since 2014.

 

Brawn was behind Merc's plan to spend way big than others to get ahead

 

+1
I remember within hearing distance of the F1 race track, my blood would curl just hearing those marvelous sounds.