3mo ago

Why is F1 avoiding a V10 revolution, and should it?

www.motorsportweek.com

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?

14 comments

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.
Such a drastic change to 2026 regulations made no sense in almost mid 2025. Teams have to prepare new year's cars on a limited budget, and doing so with a new engine of different weight and dimensions is almost senseless just 9 months short of preseason tests.
But which engine maker besides Ferrari is actually interested in putting serious R&D and money into developing a V10 where the gained knowledge and developed technology won’t be used outside of motorsports and sports cars. Not to mention that EU is going to phase out ICE cars in the coming decades. Wasn’t the entire point of the hybrid era to retain engine suppliers? Like F1 is more than just a sport, it’s also an engineering platform to develop new tech for road cars.
It’s just an empty promise by the current head of the FIA in order to get Some good press instead of all of the negative news about his performance and current rules he is putting in place to “improve the show”

14 comments