F1 engine development frozen for 10 years ??

Question

Does this mean we could be driving road cars with better technoligy than an F1 car a few years from now?

Is it the way to go or do you think th FIA are messing about with things again like they did with groved tyres.

Answer 1

I think 10 years is a bit much, but it's a good thing. Something like this will allow the teams with smaller budgets to catch up. It's all these modifications that have given the edge to most of the top teams like ferrari and mclaren since they've got more money to spend on research and development.

Answer 2

It's debatable whether a road car will ever get an engine comparable to an F1 car.
Don't forget, the Bugatti Veyron apparently produces 1001 bhp, more than a current F1 car. Can a Bugatti Veyron do what an F1 car does?....nope.
I'm not overly mechanically minded but I understand that the concept of building an F1 engine is completely different to a road car engine. For a start an F1 engine revs to 19,000 rpm, what the best you're gonna see in a road car......a very expensive sports car at that.....8,000 rpm, 10,000 rpm?
There is no need to develop engines anymore in F1 really. More power or new fancy tricks isn't always better.
Modern F1 cars are still faster then their 80s counterparts despite having smaller, lower powered engines.
It could even be argued that some modern road car engines are more advanced than F1 engines. Look at Honda's and Toyota's variable valve timing engines. This is a concept which is forbidden in F1 yet it is increasingly becoming the norm for affordable road cars.
I'm not against engine development as such but I feel that no matter what happens with engines now it will be done on a road car first anyway. So realistically the FIA might as well freeze engine development to allow money to be spent in other areas.

Answer 3

The FIA has been worrying about spending in Formula 1 over the last couple of years. I remember in 2000 teams like McLaren would make special cars that were very fast for 1 lap in qualifying and be totally different from race configuration. They would change engines every practice session, qualifying and race.

This was a major cost for teams, especially for the smaller ones like minardi and jordan.

Then a couple of years ago engine would need to last an entire race weekend and now it is up to 2 race weekends. Then they had the great idea of tires needed to last an entire race with no tire changes.

The FIA may put a freeze on engine development but the teams will just put that money into other aspects of the car to make it quicker around any circuit. You can see it in the 3.0L V-10 vs. 2.4L V8 cars. They V8's are quicker at almost every circuit they race on now.

If they really want to curve cost eliminate test sessions on non race weekends, and have test sessions only on race weekends. I read somewhere that test distances are more then 3 times the total race distance. At test sessions there isnt any TV coverage and fans to watch. Which means they arent making money in anyway of advertising.

They should have unlimited running on Thursday, Friday and Saturday and race weekends. Then have qualifying on Sunday morning and race on Sunday afternoon.

Answer 4

It is to try to reduce the costs of F1 racing for smaller teams according to FIA. BUT the FIA has blocked moves to introduce customer teams from taking part. How does this make sense?

10 years engine freeze? Well my car does not rev to 19,000 revs so I'd say they will still be ahead in F1 in 10 years... The question is will the other formulas? Will F1 be the top formula?

Answer 5

Uncontrolled clean slate technology is no longer sustainable in a racing series. F-1 is the leader in technology but well behind in racing regulations. The world has changed, a team can well spend a billion dollars developing an engine if the funds were available. The costs of the available technology have surpassed the ability of the "show" including any and all advertising and PR value to pay the bills.

All other racing series have faced the same situation and most survived with common sense regulation of the engines and cars. F-1 will survive also.

Answer 6

If the freeze would allow the NFOMs (Not Ferraris Or McLarens) to compete at all, I'd be all for it. I enjoy F1, but I am getting sick of the Lewis Hamilton show.

I don't think that production car technology relates really well to F1 tech. F1 engines are actually not all that complicated, but the controls used, the tolerances they are built to, and the materials used are nowhere near practical for any kind of production. I'd venture to say that there is better technology available in production cars today than is available in F1. We may not have the exotic materials and construction they have, but we have variable valve timing, variable displacement, hybrid technology, all kinds of things that F1 doesn't use. I really think that production car engines and F1 engines are apples and oranges at this point.

I do think that this is another case of Bernie being Bernie, and not being able to avoid making sweeping mandates, even if they are only to remind everybody just who the guy with the Andy Warhol haircut is.

Answer 7

the FIA have been trying to cut costs for ages. this is one of their options. knowing the FIA they will change their minds within those 10 years. personally i wouldn't want an engine more powerful than an F1 car, it's hard enough sticking to the speed limit now. I'm constantly driving around with one eye on the speedo.

Answer 8

what this year proves to everyone of us is that we can have a very entertaining series in F1 even with smaller engines and therefore less power than previous years, there was more overtaking than usual, less engine failures, one could say, this year was even more fun that other years, so, they have decided to stop spending so much money in acquiring more powerful machines and instead use it for aerodynamics, brakes and so on. In fact, next year the whole thing is gonna run without traction control, wow, that is gonna be interesting.
Just so you have an idea, F1 is so advanced that if they stopped their r&d for 25 years they will still challenge your car afterwards.
Don't take everything like it was a big conspiracy, they also want their series to be successful.

Answer 9

Well, the Formula 1 sanctioning body has lost its mind, again. Just like one set of tires, and a one engine rule, this shows the utter stupidity of the ones who run the series. This should not even be a major headline, as this rule will be reversed at the end of next season. Then, they will probably decide to go with a 1100 cc motorcycle engine to power the cars !! Bernie is screwing up a very good series, and seems to do it every year !!!

Answer 10

Don't forget the fact that a lot of technologies (engine related or not) you find on regular street cars originated from F1. (Ex. Honda's VTEC) You don't see most of them on F1 race cars anymore because they have been banned already in the past for the similar reason engine dev is being frozen. Although I like the fact that closer competition making the race more interesting, I also like the fact that F1 is the field where car manufacturers get to duke out their potential to the fullest. It is not like some of other race leagues in which the main focus is team competition... F1 is more about manufacturer competition, and that is one of the most fun feature in it for a fan of a particular manufacturer like me (red H flows through my blood:)). I guess we will see how this rule will affect F1 in genral...