Honda poised to leave F1

[cider_and_toast]

I remember at the time of that announcement, all the new teams who applied to take part from 2008 onwards were vetted by the FIA to ensure they had the funds to sustain a complete season in F1. The press at the time said that Carlin Motorsport were a shoe in for the vacant slot and I believe prodrive were outsiders to get on the grid at the time.

I never figured out how Eddie Jordan and Paul Stoddart intended to re-enter the sport given that neither of them owned any tangiable F1 assets since they both sold their teams lock, stock and barrel to other concerns (Midland/Spyker/Force India and Torro Rosso).

I have no idea why the grid limit was imposed in the first place. It used to be restricted to 26 cars so quite why it has been further restricted to 22 is anyones guess. How good would it be to see a grid so healthy that pre-qualifying has to be re-introduced.

As has already been mentioned, in this uncertain finacial climate I would say it would be good if F1 can come out of it with the existing teams still going. Attracting new teams will no doubt have to wait until there are better times ahead.

 

[Brogan]

Well I never expected this!

Autosport.com understands that as well as wholly independent teams Williams and Force India having shown an interest, Red Bull Racing and Scuderia Toro Rosso have told the FIA that they are taking the option into consideration.

But the biggest surprise is that French car manufacturer Renault is believed to have told the FIA that it too is interested in the supply of standard engines.

So there are at least 5 teams showing an interest in the Cosworth engine.
Not sure how this will affect Force India's agreement with VMM and as for Renault, who would have predicted that?

More here: Standard engine set for go-ahead

 

[cider_and_toast]

I must admit, having read the article, I have warmed to the idea of the standard engine as it is being currently proposed. I thought that Max was going to force all the teams to run with a common FIA issued engine and that was that but it would now appear that the FIA are organising a works Ford Cosworth deal on behalf of those teams interested.

I've put similar comments on 606 to the effect that those teams who sign up will be jointly funding a Cosworth power plant while at the same time the larger manufacturers will still be able to proceed with their own units. The fact that 4 or 5 teams will be paying individually less but as a collective more than an single team engine builder should ensure that there is some parity. Those teams, most likely BMW, Merc and Ferrrari who do wish to proceed with their own engine programmes will do so knowing the finacial burdens they are adding to their teams.

The key factor is that the Cosworth engine must be able to compete in the same league as the works teams. If this is the case then it should prove a winning idea and hopefully encourage more enterants into the sport.

As for Renault, it was a suprise but I could see it happening. Renault have run badged engines for other teams in the past (under the mechachrome and supertec names) so I wonder if some agreement would be reached to run the engines re-badged this time. I can't see the french press being too pleased about any jobs lost in France as a result of them purchasing british engines but having said that Alan Prost expected a lot more french support to save his team and found it wasn't there so anything could happen. Maybe Renault will buy the engines from Cosworth but conduct the re-builds and overhauls in house. This would satisfy both sides of the deal and due to the technical freeze regs wouldn't impact engine development.

 

[sobriety]

The problem that I is that the options seem to say that if the cosworth engines get the go-ahead, then the teams not using them will have to develop either engines with the same power output as the cossies or use the cosworth plans. If all the teams are using standard non-modifyable(sp) engines, then how does that fit with F1 being the pinnacle of development and technology? I for one am all for chucking the rulebook in it's current form out of the window, in favour of something far simpler. This would reduce costs for the smaller, more innovative teams by allowing them more freedom of design.