Yeah. It was the only point I wanted to pick up upon at this point in the debate. Lots of interesting stuff has already been said but this was a new branch which threatened to take us 'out on a limb' as it were - as was intended by the Bernie machinery.
Chris Sylt's still intent on rubbing salt into Joe Saward's wounds by spinning this yarn further, although there are new quotes attributed to Ecclestone. please log in to view this image
Couldnt find an apt thread but news on the street is Porche are looking to return to F1 as VWs representative. This comes after Porche have been head hunting the F1 paddock for engineers. Of course this is for their comeback to Le mans primarily but as they are looking for f1 experianced personel then it can be interpreted they will be looking to do F1 too. And why not? the engine specs wont be to different.
Also I have ust read that Cosworth are looking to sell up their F1 project after losing williams and Caterham so we may have another name powering F1 cars as soon as next year other wise it may bugger up HRT and Marussia
Let's hope its better than the god-awful cast iron lump of a V12 they gave to Footwork/Arrows in 1991................. When it takes 4 men to lift it and it suffers from oil surge problems when going around corners, you kinda get the impression they didn't spend too much time designing it! Was so crap I don't even think a sportscar team would use it.
Lasttime they built a V6 turbo engine for F1 they supplied for 4 1/4 years and won 3 WDC's and 2 WCC's and were runners up twice, not bad. Ferrari, on the other hand, came nowhere.
Here is a completely biased view. Please take it with a pinch of salt if you are a 'Ferrari man (or woman)': Porsche will out-gun Ferrari at their own game, home or away, any and every time they choose.
They did indeed, I was just remarking on their last effort. In theory, Porsche, Honda & Renault could all dust off their 1.5. V6's, bore them out to 1.6 and go racing! Although maybe there has been some advancements in turbo engine technology in the last 25 years...........
I feel like if you have the support of the Volkswagen Group you are probably going to do all right. Still, I think it would be interesting to see an Audi branded factory team in the sport. I have one friend that is an Audi supporter in Le Mans so I'm sure if it ever happened he'd jump right over into F1 for that team. But more on topic, what is the opinion on the V6 turbos? I feel like the teams won't have much difficulty getting adequate power from them and that the racing will be good. I have heard that supposedly the engines sound like **** and that they might've been scrapped as you can't have F1 without that signature engine sound. I admit it wouldn't be the same at all without the sound we've all come to know. As long as the cars don't go slower I don't care if they change engines, especially as the sport is trying its best to be more eco-friendly and cost effective, just so long as we don't start slowing them up even more. My Dad and I had a conversation the other day about all of this. My dad was saying he didn't notice a clutch and I told him they only have a hand clutch right on the side of the steering wheel for the starts and then after that its all just the paddles. He then pointed how thats silly as guys like Senna and Prost and Mansell were driving around with those big turbo engines and a stick shift around Monaco and how those guys have huge cojones in comparison. I can't really argue with him there, but my only point here is, how awesome would it be if we had a big powerful engine like that again? I know its firmly out of the realm of possibility, but still, that'd be awesome.
When boost was unrestricted and the fuel was just a hazardous mix of chemicals, 1300bhp was the norm back in 1986 from 1.5 V6 turbo. BMW apparently cranked one of theirs up to 1400bhp in quali spec (from 4 cyl's!). Even in 88 when they went down to 2.5 bar boost I think 750-800bhp was being got out of Honda & Ferrari. Remember also these engines were barely gong at 11,000rpm! Not sure what the boost limits are for the new breed, but with the way engine & turbo technology has developed since 1988 I can see the engine rules requiring regular attention as the possibilities for improvement with a turbo are way in advance of what they could get by tweaking a non-turbo engine. I imagine a raft of rpm limits, turbo sizes, boost pressures, air restrictors etc will come into play. As for their sound, no one complained in the 80's about the noise as it was still great, and a damn sight better than the constant drone of DFV V8's that everyone had been used to. If you want pure F1 noise, that went a long time ago when the wailing V10's & V12's were outlawed.
That seems pretty impressive, I don't know how much pressure the engines handle, but 250 kPa seems to be a fair amount of pressure. I thought they settled right around 1000 hp in those big V-12 turbos so hey, I've learned something new today. I only remember hearing about complaints about engines now. Maybe it wasn't the turbos that I'm thinking of, but I know that there were engines that they tested and Bernie thought they sounded awful so they got scrapped (I swear I remember reading that). I'm honestly not that worried about it in the end, they'll get it figured out, hopefully.
They are German after all, it just comes naturally to them. On Porsche, as something of a nostalgia lover, if they were to re-enter in the engine markets, could they be badged as Porsche-TAG turbo?
I see no reason why not but it would surely depend on whether TAG would want to come in again as a major sponsor. Switzerland is not a million miles from Stuttgart and their seems a bond of brotherhood amongst the peoples of that whole region surrounding Bavaria – so, why not?! Besides, since Porsche comes under the wing of the Volkswagen Audi Group, they could market their resumed alliance under the somewhat catchy name of "VAG TAG"… OK, I'll get me coat…
I wonder which drivers will get to grips with the turbo engines first? Surely it will **** over the smooth drivers and the very experienced drivers that have had many years of exp with V8's unlike the young guys for example, this will close the field down even more?
In principle, 'smooth' drivers will not suffer in the least, due to the introduction of turbos. In fact one might argue the exact opposite; if anything, turbos require more finesse. In any case, despite the difference in power delivery, it is a simple adaptation for any racing driver to make.
