I just read an article that said that it has been agreed that the new engines will rev to 15,000. It just keeps getting better and better for the sound
Its just another 'around the houses' way of doing something though, drives me bloody mad! If the FIA want F1 to be green, impose fuel restrictions. It's like trying to get a piece of toast by setting fire to a bakery.
I always thought that the rev limit was to increase reliability and to reduce cost : There's no point in throwing good money after bad in developing ultra high revving engines if the revs are limited, plus preventing the engines from reaching their ultimate speed will stop them from detonating so frequently.
This was the idea behind implementing a rev-limited formula in the first place, so I would imagine that this is the reason why it will continue.
"Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine ..."
Diesel wrote:Its just another 'around the houses' way of doing something though, drives me bloody mad! If the FIA want F1 to be green, impose fuel restrictions. It's like trying to get a piece of toast by setting fire to a bakery.
It's all about the image of the sport- F1 has to appear to be green, to set a standard. All of this KERS stuff will eventually filter down to road cars as well. Nothing advances technology like an advisary. Look at the arms race in WW2 and the COld War. So many new technologies appeared from wars.
But if the whole aero and packaging game changes by employing either the slimmer and higher I4 or by ground effect and tunnel use Newey is out again in the open with the other teams to find new solutions. Traditionally the leading teams have always opposed fundamental change. It is no different with Red Bull. They would shoot themselves in the foot if they would not lobby to keep the advantage they have now. So its no surprise that Red Bull prefer a known configuration.
Forgive my injecting fact into your diatribe, but Newey is well known as the designer best able to take advantage of new sets of rules.
It should also be noted that Newey is quoted as saying:
A racing V6 is a much nicer engine to package.
Enzo Ferrari was a great man. But he was not a good man. -- Phil Hill
It's still the wrong way to do it in my opinion. If you want F1 to be green, restrict the amount of fuel they get to use in a race. If you want the engines to last longer, impose penalties for failures - actually they already do this, so it's not the reason for the rev limit.
I bet Ferrari paid him a ton of money to say that.
He gave a decent insight into what happened with the 4-cylinder turbo. It was done because it was thought Audi would come into the sport, and they then changed their mind. He said they were lumbered with something sub-optimal - "A four cyclinder turbo is not a nice car [engine] to install and you've got to put a space-frame around it and you cannot make it properly structural".
So there you have it. Sayonara to the I4. It wasn't any kind of solution Formula 1 wanted from any perspective, especially an engineering one.
The thing I don't understand with F1 going green is that they are not really going to change the world that much by setting lower rev limits, going to smaller engines, etc. They will help save a little fuel here, a little fuel there, but not THAT much. It is racing, and in my opinion, we should not have to sacrifice racing for helping the environment.
Zach Miles- Purdue University
"Who's call was it to bring me in?...Frickin Terrible idea"
-Lewis Hamilton
Wow, that Pitpass article has to rank as one imaginative piece of fiction.
But this entire engine saga is becoming a nightmare. The original reason to move away from the current 2.4 liter V-8 was to have an engine more in keeping with today's reality of less waste, and a greener future.
A smaller displacement inline 4 was selected as the basis moving forward, but some teams weren't happy with the setup, and in the end, after a lot of public complaining, we have this new V-6, a testament to the legacy of Todt, that of compromise.
On a side note, anyone remember how Max did business, by force and intimidation, it's quite a change in management style.
Anyhewwwww... so a V-6 was the final compromise. But at the RPM's it was supposed to run at, the sound just wouldn't be exciting. So to ramp up the "Bernie factor", make the engine sounds more exciting by increasing the revs.
And in the end, what started out as a cheaper and greener engine is now going to be exposed to lack of financial control (another spending war) and be much less environmentally friendly compared to what was intended.
Racing should be decided on the track, not the court room.
IMO going green isn't turning down the wick these engineers can make a green engine no doubt about it being the greenest we would see, but with the regs being pushed forward it really isn't pushing the border on performance to be green for F1, truly going green would be achieving the same results with the V8 and by no means harming the performance or reliability that is where I would clap up for F1, now F1's 'going green' is just a ploy to drag new manufacturers in the sport with a 'green' straight 4 block, an attempt that failed and then backfired, Bernie knows this and is causing a lot of trouble with it.
I don't ind fuel limits at all, but I do mind Power limits and Rev limits, if Merc can make and engine rev too 19k and last 10 races WOW, clap up to them thats something to shout to the world about not the weak rules we are going to have.