Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone will make a further attempt to cut the sport’s extravagant costs on Thursday.
Ahead of a meeting of the Strategy Group that comprises the ‘big five’ – Ferrari, McLaren, Mercedes, Red Bull and Williams, plus the sixth-placed team from the recent championship in Force India – Ecclestone is to propose another engine change.
There is no doubt considerable blame for the financial crisis that engulfed the sport at the end of the season was laid at the door of the introduction of the new 1.6-litre V6 turbo-charged power units that replaced the old 2.4-litre V8s.
The three power unit manufacturers in Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault spent many millions on development, and in a bid to recoup
some of their costs have naturally charged their customers accordingly.
It meant from an annual outlay of around £5million (Dh28.7m) for the V8s, teams were suddenly asked to find around £15- 20million (Dh86.2m-114.9m), ultimately forcing the likes of Caterham and Marussia out of business.
As for Force India, Lotus and Sauber, the trio suggested a far more equitable distribution of the sport’s $900million (Dh3.3bn) revenue to ease their financial concerns, but that ultimately cut little ice with Ecclestone despite numerous talks.
Now Ecclestone is to head into the Strategy Group meeting proposing a potential return to the V8s, or even V10s.
“We recognise the biggest problem these teams have is the amount they have to spend on the power unit,” said Ecclestone.
“I believe if you got everybody in the room, secret ballot, there would only be one company interested in retaining this engine, and that is Mercedes.
“Is that good for Formula One? I think not. Because we can all put our money together and have a wager they will win the championship next year, and probably the year after, which is not really the sort of thing we are looking for.
“I have been proposing, and am going to propose, at the next meeting we go back to a normally-aspirated engine with some hybrid bits built into it.
“The teams, manufacturers will have to call it a ‘McLaren hybrid’, ‘Ferrari hybrid’ or a ‘Williams hybrid’. It’s so we get across the
message they are hybrids, but nobody tells anybody.
“It’s the best-kept secret actually as to what this engine is for, why it was designed and what have we achieved with it because it is a fantastic bit of engineering, it really is.”
