A further update - Ecclestone has 'summoned' the F1 Commission "in an attempt to formally scuttle" the new engine regulations, according to AMuS. EDIT: Also now reported by The F1 Times.
http://www.not606.com/content.php/461-The-Engine-Debate I thought I'd post a link as Genji's probably too modest to. Very good read.
I wrote it to try to sort things out in my head before posting on the forum. Some of my understanding of the situation is probably wrong and, although it's only a few days old, it's already out of date. EDIT: Just realised it's been picked up and re-published as an article again. I'm glad I changed my analogy to "as stable as an arab dictatorship" from "as shaky as an epileptic masturbating."
That article is a great read Genji. I think its sad F1 (the greatest motorsport) has to go down the route of smaller engines.
Why is that El_Bando? Surely bigger isn't necessarily better? Every technology ends up getting smaller eventually because efficiency is an important commodity. Was F1 necessarily better when cars had V10 or V12 engines?
The V10's were better than the current V8's. Its just the power and the noise. The V12 engines of the early 90's were good but they had disadvantages against the V10's. I cant imagine restrained V6's would be able to get the same performance of the V10's, V8's.
And is this stopping you from enjoying F1 at the moment? The engineers in F1 are some of the finest in the world, they'll come good. At the FOTA fan's forum in Canadia, Martin Whitmarsh stated that an F1 engines noise was extremely important and that have to get the sound right if they were to change to smaller engines.
no but It may make me interested in looking at other motorsports that are more faster if F1 is no longer the pinnacle. I understand the engineers are the best but F1 is becoming so cramped these days. I want to see the cars pushed to the limits with Safety and money as the only limitations
Yep, understand exactly where you're coming from. However, I don't think that F1 will allow itself to become slower than other sports. As you say, it is the pinnacle of motorsport but it knows this, so it won't let that happen. With talk of the BBC maybe not continuing it's coverage after 2013 or sooner, F1 doesn't need to make more problems for itself by refusing to evolve.
Don't forget that, even with the four-cylinder engine revving at 12,000rpm, performance is not expected to be significantly compromised.
As do we all! Who knows, F1 may go to Sky and then it won't matter what the engines put out as I won't be able to see/hear it anyway!
I'd like to see the 1.5L V6 engines from the 80's return. Those things were monstrous. And because they're smaller, they'll be cheaper and better for the sky.
12000 rpm is not much more than what Honda's VTEC road engines do. F1 will be a laughing stock if the toad get's his wish.
I'm sure someone else must have said it, because otherwise I'm stating the bleeding obvious...why change the engine rules at all? The entire point of freezing development was to cut costs, needing a different engine is just going to add costs that are otherwise unnecessary, and nearly everyone is happy with the current regulations in that respect. Why dod Toadt even propose them in the first place?
On the green issue I don't see why they can't just limit the amount of fuel for the race - say, 100kg from 2013, 80kg from 2015, 60kg from 2017 - and let them build whatever engines they want.
