If you’re one of those stodgy old codgers who doesn’t like the new engin…erm…Power Units in Formula One, this weeks meeting in Geneva might be good news for you and your outlandish horsepower demands and sparks-a-flying F1 dreams.
According to the insatiable folks at AUTOSPORT, the a group of key executives involved in divining the future of engines in F1 met and apparently contemplated ramping up the current Power Unit (PU) as soon as 2017—which means we have this current Gas-X needing lump for two more years.
For some of you, it may come as a surprise to know that there is a Power Unit Group who brood over the details and regulatory considerations of the engine but that’s F1—have an issue, throw a committee together and come up with the most pragmatic solution you can think of that will ultimately bite someone in the arse.
The solutions they considered were increasing the horsepower of the engines to 1000bhp! That’s right, just like the old turbo days when men were men and cars were intent on killing anyone who dare press the peddle to the floor.
This would mean increasing the fuel flow rate as well as the RPM’s but as the article says, it would not require a complete redo of the current engine. That might make things a lot more interesting if you consider that they would be allowing the engine to deliver a majority of the power the car enjoys.
The other consideration was, as you would imagine, centered on the costs of these new engines. A proposal that Red Bull Racing’s Christian Horner proffered late last season was to standardize the ERS components making them much more affordable and the same for all teams.
The reality is that standardizing isn’t the core DNA of F1 but it is a way to make it more affordable. It’s worked for NASCAR and while many might shudder at the thought of a spec series, you can see why other racing programs are all spec in order to afford to actually race from time to time. I’m not advocating it, just stating the simple fact that standardization can decrease costs.
According to the article, the engine boffins were looking for some direction regarding the desire for more power or the desire for more sound or both. Perhaps Martin Brundle and Nigel Roebuck said it best in the most recent copy of Motorsport Magazine when they suggested that giving engineers a mechanism to harvest energy from exhaust was always going to have damn near no sound coming out as they are really good at what they do. I’m paraphrasing here but you get the point.
Mr. Noble says in his article that the issue is to be tabled until next month’s F1 technical directors meeting where they will pick it up and hopefully run with it.
Hat Tip: AUTOSPORT
