Why is F1 avoiding a V10 revolution, and should it?
Why is F1 avoiding a V10 revolution, and should it?
Key F1 stakeholders and team bosses have a shared desire to shelve plans to reintroduce V10 engines for the time being to focus on making a success of the 2026 regulations, but is that the right call to make?
Key F1 stakeholders and team bosses have a shared desire to shelve plans to reintroduce V10 engines for the time being to focus on making a success of the 2026 regulations, but is that the right call to make?
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Haven't read the article because I really don't care about this idea but how can you call it a revolution? V10 ICE are not new and there's very little to optimize at this point. It's a relic of the past and there's no application for this tech outside of motor racing.
Words have no meaning anymore. Going back to decades old tech is now a "revolution". 🙄
Can you elaborate? ICE development is not linked to the number of cylinders I think. I wouldn't see how it is I mean. And the V6 they use now is vastly different than the V10 of before. Mazda even developed a new way of combustion so I'd hardly say there's no optimisation or application.
ICE development is actually very much dependent on the number of cylinders. Adding a pair creates new unbalances that have to be accounted for. That's why there are so many different engine configurations.
I'm not saying there's no room for improvement in ICE development but it's the "law of diminishing returns". It's a tech that has been around for over a century. As with all tech, the earlier improvements have a bigger impact than later ones, in general.
Electric motors are the future and I’d prefer if Formula 1 headed in a direction where they can innovate in this area rather than sticking to an engine that is on its way out.
The electric motor has been around longer than the combustion engine, there's no major breakthroughs to be had there either. The only piece that to innovate on are batteries. Currently batteries are not energy dense enough for f1, fe cars are slower than f3 cars.
I guess I wasn't precise enough. I know the electric motor has been around. There are huge gains to find in energy storage and the real world applications are enormous. I'm not saying that they should switch to all electric tomorrow but maybe in the next ten years. Maybe swapping batteries during the race could be an option? I know it's not trivial but we're talking about F1. I'm sure they can figure it out. Comparing F1 and FE is not very interesting imho, team budgets are way smaller, around 10%.
It's not lack of resources that causes FE cars to be so much slower than F3 cars it's the batteries. F1 budgets are a tiny fraction of the R&D being spent on batteries.
If you told teams they had 200kg min for fuel, engine, motor, and battery and left the rest up to them teams would not be using motors and batteries. From a racing pov they slow the car down.
Yes, I know. But F1 has never been purely about building the fastest car possible. It’s always been a balance of speed, rules, strategy, and spectacle.
Fast cars are spectacle, slow heavy ones are not. It's why semi truck racing ia less popular than f1.
The application of a balancing shaft (or not) is not something I'd classify as something development depends on but that could be a difference in opinion.
Of course we're at least halfway over the s curve for development of the ICE. And while electric is waiting for a breakthrough in energy storage I still believe there's a lot to be gained with ICE as well. Besides, the emotion and feeling of an ICE can be emulated but not replaced. F1 is of course about innovation but most of all "just" a sport and for fun. You don't see football (soccer?) be about innovation. Or basketball for that matter.
Fair enough. I think in the end it all comes down to preference. Some prefer nostalgia and would be happy with the return of an iconic engine. Others are more excited with F1 being about innovation and real world application.
To me, the beauty of F1 is that it's not like other sports in some aspects. It's constantly changing and teams must find ways to stay competitive. That's why I prefer innovation over nostalgia.