FIA president, Mohammed ben Sulayem believes V8 engines could return to F1 before the end of the decade.
No matter your persuasion, you will be aware that ahead of elections politicians will promise the people all they want to hear in a bid to secure each precious vote.
Though Joe Public has no say in December’s election of the FIA president, a sceptic might suspect that despite this Mohammed be Sulayem is already campaigning.
Talking to the media at Silverstone over the weekend, while Tim Mayer was talking of a “reign of terror” at the FIA, Mohammed ben Sulayem was dangling an interesting carrot… the return of V8 engines.
“The current engine is so complicated, you have no idea, and it is costly,” said the FIA president. R&D is reaching $200 million, and the engine is costing approximately $1.8m to $2.1m, so if we go with a straight V8… let’s see.”
As recently as April talk of a V10 return was all but dismissed, with cost appearing to be the sticking point, that and the fact that the likes of Audi, GM and Ford have been attracted to the sport by the increasing electrification of it and the fact that the regulations being introduced next year look set to be the way forward.
“As usual all the teams will obviously want something slightly different that suits their own criteria,” Christian Horner told Sky following a meeting in early April attended by F1, the FIA, the teams and Audi CEO Gernot Doellner, Mercedes chairman Ola Kaellenius and General Motors president Mark Reuss. “So I think it’s really up to the FIA and ultimately Liberty as the commercial rights holder of the sport to decide.
“This isn’t just about in three to four years’ time,” added Horner, “this is about what do the next 10-15 years look like.
“There is a governance,” he warned. “When this set of regulations came in, the manufacturers signed up to a document that binds the governance. So you have to have what they call a supermajority for any significant change. So that would be out of the six, you’d need four votes out of the six.
“(20)31, at the end of the Concorde possibly,” he continued, “but before that would need to follow a governance. There is a governance, so it can’t just be, you know, ‘we’re going to introduce this next’.”
Of course, that was the V10, while Ben Sulayem believes that a lighter, more road relevant V8, with a cheaper, less complicated hybrid system is the answer.
“Many of the manufacturers produce V8s in their cars, so commercially it’s correct,” he said at Silverstone. “How much is it? You drop it. The target is more than 50% in everything.
“To us, the V8 is happening. With the teams now, I’m very optimistic, happy about it. FOM are supportive, the teams are realising it is the right way.
“We need to do it soon,” he warned, “you need three years, so hopefully by 2029 we have something there, but the fuel is also very expensive, and we have to be very careful with that. Transmissions are very expensive.”
The FIA president, who supported the idea of an eleventh team from the start, bringing him and the sport’s governing body into direct confrontation with F1 and the majority of the teams, is also seeking a twelfth team.
“The time will come when we feel it is right to open an expression of interest,” he said. “We are not here to upset other teams. It won’t be just go and do it for the sake of doing it. It has to be worth it for us. The team has to add value to sustaining the business of Formula One.”
Of the opinion that the sport needs more cars on the grid and not more races, Ben Sulayem is understood to be looking outside F1’s traditional heartlands in terms of a new team, possibly China.
While F1’s V8 era is understandably associated with Ford and the legendary Cosworth engine, the Ferrari F138 of 2013 was the last time the configuration was used in the sport, Fernando Alonso claiming victories in China and Spain.
