So, the world of formula one is going to wake up to a new dawn of Engine rule changes come 2021, while the basic concepts were announced jointly by the FIA and F1 last October, refining the detail in conjunction with the current four suppliers and potential new entrant Porsche has taken months of discussion, yes you read that right Porsche is a highly speculative entrant in the pinnacle of Motorsports, with these engine rule change and it is widely rumored amongst the Formula one community that one of the reasons for this change is to lure new manufacturers like Porsche, Honda and Aston Martin into the sport.
The proposal for 2021 includes keeping the current 1.6 litre V6 engine, but running it at 3000-4000 RPMs higher to improve the sound, many F1 fans were disappointed with the engine noise produced by the current cars over the yesteryears maddening sound of the V8s. Another major parameters clinging on to this engine shift is the idea of introducing which FIA described as ‘’a plug and play engine/chassis/transmission swap capability’’.
In order to simplify the complexity of the current internal combustion engine, the MGH-H will be removed; the MGU- K will be made more powerful with the focus on manual driver deployment of additional power similar to the KERS unit which saw its light fading away with the introduction the hybrid cars in 2014. However it is not that all OEMs engine suppliers are happy with this shift, one of them being Renault Sport which is reluctant to go through these engine rule changes as a huge cost is involved and on the budget side they have already got their banks empty developing the current hybrid engine in order to compete with the front-runners of the sport.
What Red Bull boss Christian Horner has suggested is there is no point in going through these changes if no new entrants are coming in, with Renault Boss Cyril Abiteboul focusing more on stability as F1 does business in such a competitive and expensive environment.
Changing the rules in order to entice new manufacturers to come through the door comes with loads of question marks as to whether it will only benefit the new entrants and the current engine suppliers has to play the catch up game all over again, this is something Mercedes boss Toto Wolf showed serious concern about. Whatever the case it may be we F1 fans can only pray that 2021 brings the cars more close on the run to the back straight and those engine volumes become louder. FIA bring it on!
