1.5 Litre Turbo Engines to return to F1?

I can see why Ferrari would resist this as they don't make any turbo cars. Will it happen?

 

I'd love this idea but I don't think it will happen. The R & D costs will be too high.

I don't think Ferrari cares if F-1 has turbos and the street cars don't. They made turbo F-1 before (albeit not very successfully) and it didn't matter. The 80's were a time of great expansion of Ferrari street cars and few had them. Besides, I would not be surprised if the next generation of street cars actually used turbos to increase HP. McLaren is already moving in that direction.

I think Ferari would worry that the technology and investment would be too great to make such a major change. They must have tons of software and engineering on how to make a normally aspirated engine. Going to turbo charging would be a major change to the way they design, develop, and build both the engines and the cars.

You would have to argue WHY this change is necessary. It certainly won't decrease the cost of the engine. It won't increase the fuel economy. It will make the package smaller but it will also increase issues of heat dispersal.

So, I'm trying to figure out the point aside from being "politically correct" and moving to smaller powerplants to appear more "green".

 

I agree with Steve Matchett that the FIA should just impose a fuel quantity limit per race, or per season perhaps? Then just unfreeze engine development.

 

The article says the engines would use half as much fuel.

The big push imo should be because a lower revving turbo engine translates much better to road car engines than these 18000rpm V8's. It's important not only because the technology will easily trickle down, but also because costs will be contained since r&d $$ won't be a dead end at F1. A whole lot of manufacturers would surely come back as engine suppliers. BMW is already very much advanced in turbo engine technology, VW/Audi and Honda would easily be interested as well I'm sure.

I think Ferrari might have more of a problem with the the engine configuration than going from NA to turbo. Iirc, they've already given hints that future engines will go back to turbo. Isn't the F70 going to use a TT V8 instead of a V12?

Only problem the FIA will have is equalizing performance. Even with a power cap, there will be hugely different drivability difference across the line up.

 

+1 on all points. Almost every car company is either currently selling or producing small turbo engines because of fuel economy concerns. I think this is a great idea if for no other reason than to bring back engineering. I hate the f'ing engine freeze and cannot wait to see it go.

Mark

 

I quite like the 'limit the fuel' idea. Give each car an allocation per season and knock 20% off the allocation each year. That would force them to come up with new ideas. The only problem is the huge costs involved. It would make the 'haves' much quicker than the 'have-nots'.

 

Another change of engine specs while bemoaning the high cost of F1?

 

+2 part of the attraction for me in F1 is advancement, freezing things is backwards.

 

Tell me about it, talk about KERS, IIRC they are talking about bringing it back.

 

Don't get me wrong. I'd love to see the little buzz bombs. Its the hand-wringing that I object to.
Got a date with a Doc.
TA TA

 

Weak.

This whole 'f1 needs to go green' is so backwards. It is MOTORSPORT, unless you go and make them run on electricity it won't ever be 'green'.

I'm seriously losing interest in the sport with idiotic regulations, no overtaking unless there is some rain because the FIA can't write a rule book. If I was in power last year and the teams with the double diffuser came along I'd have told them to do one and fit a normal diffuser.

This whole sh*t about the world ending because someone has a range rover is idiotic. Since the beginning of time the planet has warmed up and cooled down again. Anyways, weren't the 'scientists' claiming global warming a few months ago claiming that in fact the planet was cooling down again?

Those boffins with their white coat should figure out how to make oil quicker so we don't cool down so much in the winter .

 

An interesting fact, after 9/11 when all the air traffic stopped over the states, the temp of the earth went up..

 

Good luck mate..

 

Really? Never heard that before....

 

Indeed. IIRC, it was Patrick Head who said the V10 -> V8 change was the single most expensive rule change he'd ever had to deal with...... Going back to turbo's would be crazy expensive.

+1 I don't know about the have's -v-have-not's though - My guess would be that there would be around 6 engine suppliers, and some will be better than others - Good!.... You do a good job, you win, you don't, you loose..... Always used to be like that in "the good old days".

Cheers,
Ian

 

As long as it's not a failure like KERS, and increases overtaking, i'm happy.

 

I still believe they almost got it right - Expensive, yes, but they were onto something which *may* have improved "the show" one way or another. The talk about bringing it back seems to center around a "standard" unit that they'll all use, which while helping to control costs defeats the whole "R&D" argument - I say "let 'em at it!" He who does the best job wins!

Cheers,
Ian

 

I agree. On top of that KERS should be an area where there should be no limit on power output allowing teams to develop better mousetraps.

 

-Flame suit on - I believe a few years ago, it was Max Mosley that suggested that a possible future configuration for F1 would allow teams to run any type of engine they wished, as long as all the teams carried the same amount of fuel... This was before his "10-year engine freeze" and Nazi S&M episode

 

"According to highly reliable Pitpass sources"

BWAHAHAHAHA!!! Now that I got my morning laugh...

If the Porsche Spyder RS actually goes into production and gets anywhere near its published mileage, emissions and performance specs, it will be living proof that F1 need not take the lead in the green performance movement. Plain turbos are so 80's.

 

Ferrari has made 2 of the greatest turbo cars ever produced, one of them sits in my garage (when I'm not driving it of course) 288GTO, the other being the mighty F40. Turbo usage would be no problem at all for the team...

 

Hmmmm...push to pass button that would lift the PSI on the turbo for a period of time. This could improve over taking (do what KERS couldnt).

Mark

 

KERS is useless. All the drivers use it at the same time, so whoever has the best engine and KERS wins the battle= spending war on KERS. If it's a standardized system, everyone will go faster by the same amount and there won't be any overtaking.

 

Of the top of my head: I watched a program on TV good while back now, the jist of it was that for years they check the temp of the earth in various places but this was particular in the states, so when all the aircraft stopped flying after 9/11 the temp went up.

The reason they gave was because there was no vapour trails to refect the sun light the places where they measured the heat had gone up for the period of no flying.

It is more complicated than that, but IIRC that was the jist of it.

 

+1