Formula One’s 2014 engine rules may bring manufacturers back to sport

Ferrari, Mercedes, Renault, Honda, Peugeot, Toyota, BMW, and Yamaha (yes, you read right, Yamaha), are just some of the engine suppliers and car manufacturers that have participated over the years in Formula One, still the pinnacle of motorsport. They have produced gas-guzzling V12s, the shrill sounding V10s, (which, to me, is still the best-sounding F1 engine), and the current howling V8s.

With fuel efficiency and the skyrocketing costs of Grand Prix (GP) racing  in the minds of the participants, Formula One rule makers decided to change the engine specifications, and, as stated in Article No. 5 of the FIA F1 2014 technical regulations published in July 2013, the 2014-spec cars will be running turbocharged 1.6-liter V6 engines.

The current V8s use about 140-150 kilogram of fuel for each race. The 2014 V6 is expected to use about 100 kg. Saving 50 kg per race may not sound like much, but once you take into consideration the fuel used during the practice sessions, in qualifying, and the cost to bring it to each of the 20 or so races around the world, the savings will add up. While there is no explicit rule on the amount of fuel Formula One teams put in a car, the race refueling ban is still in place. Teams are thus limited in the amount of fuel they race with during the GP weekend.

FIA Formula One race director Charlie Whiting, during the FIA Sport Conference Week, said: “The technology has come on in leaps and bounds and it is the most efficient way of developing the required power and that, alongside the energy recovery, means we will see some amazing machines out there.”

Another factor that brought about the changes was the clamor for the relevance of GP racing to road cars, more specifically, on how the consumers would benefit from all the developments made in Formula One. The kinetic energy recovery system (KERS) is a good example; used by all teams, it has been developed for, and is now in place for use in, hybrid road cars. In Formula One, KERS provides an additional 150 hp, providing a substantial boost for overtaking. In road cars, KERS could provide a boost in fuel efficiency of between 15-20 percent.

Would all these changes turn off purists? Some are insisting that racing is not racing if teams are limited in maximizing the speed of their cars. Even the sound that the V6s will produce was a point of contention. That a “muffled” turbo engine might not sit well with spectators in the grandstands who have paid good money to attend races.

But with engines churning out 750 hp at 15,000 rpm, the 2014 V6s would almost certainly provide more than enough on-track action that we, as Formula One fans, have come to enjoy.

The new rules might well be intriguing enough to lure into the fold manufacturers like Audi and Porsche, both of which have made their marks in various other racing categories. While Honda is set to return with McLaren in 2015, rekindling memories of, with the Senna-Prost tandem driving, a car with a V6 turbo dominated the 1988 season, winning 15 of the 16 races. With Renault engines already sporting the Infiniti branding, the industry buzz has manufacturers like BMW and Toyota, using the Lexus brand, considering a return to the pinnacle of motorsport.