Formula 1: New Engines By 2013

[dominique355]

Starting 2013 Formula 1 - the apogee of Motor sport - will use new engines. The specs seem to be as follows:

- 4 cylinder

- 1600 ccm or 100 cubic inch

- max rev 12,000 rpm

- KERS

- Injection pressure 500 bar

- 5 engines per driver per season

Is this the end of Formula 1 as the top of technology and motorsport? I am afraid so.

Good bye the glorious high-tech 12,10 or 8 cylinders, hello nerd technology.

Instead of focusing on making the races more interesting by facilitating overtaking and outlawing some aerodynamic features, FIA has decided that the teams must again develop new engines. (What happened to cost reduction?)

It would have been so easy to implement rules for overtaking:

- allow ground effect

- restrict wing size

and we would have been able to enjoy real races. Instead we have to get used to the pathetic sound of 4 cylinder engines, just like your Toyota Altis taxi.

[kartman]

Last time i remember a 4 cylinder forced induction engine in F1 it was only 1500 cc with a production car block(BMW) and 'only' produced in unrestricted qualifying spec 1400+bhp! and that was nearly 30 years ago, so with restrictions but current technical improvements an increase over current power levels perhaps possible.

[dominique355]

Yes sure, the 1.5 liter turbocharged engines developed way over 1,000 HP and were utterly undrivable, and also fuel consumption was sky high. But teams were free to make engines with more than 4 cylinders. So Renault, Ferrari etc built V6 and Alfa even a V8 turbocharged engine.

Now FIA advocates "green" engines and at the same time increases the number of venues per season to 20, which means more flying around the globe with 3 fully loaded jumbo jets.

I would believe that more energy is consumed moving the teams around to the most remote places and in a very unorganized way. If FIA is serious about getting "greener", reorganize the schedule of race venues and put geographically close places together.

Formula 1 should be the pinnacle of car technology, so we don't need any window dressing trying to appear "green".

I would suggest FIA makes a rule where the teams are given a certain amount of fuel and let them decide how to use it. We had that before and it worked very well. Never before did engine development make so much progress.

[motoyen]

I believe the owners of F1 see the growth of the sport in new markets and not in new cars. They see the market potential of bringing the F1 circus to places like India, China, etc who have no F1 history and who's fans really could care less about what is under the hood. I suspect that soon we'll see less and less tracks in Europe and more in places like Russia, China, and the Middle East. Sadly the golden age of motor sport died a long time ago and now it's just a marketing campaign for corporations.