Future of Forumla 1 powertrains

There has been much discussion in the motorsport press of late regarding proposals for the next generation of F1 powertrains.

There now appears to be a pretty universal agreement to use some sort of KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System). This makes a lot of sense with Hybrid vehicles becoming more prevalent in the market and proper Electric vehicles or EVs being just around the corner. It also makes a lot of sense when you consider the huge amounts of energy shed by an F1 car when braking for a corner.

Another area of interest is in the engines themselves. There appear to be two camps at the moment: those that think an inline-4 is the best solution and the others that prefer a V-6 with twin turbos. There are pros and cons to each of these solutions as might be expected. An inline-4 would be cheaper to produce and being much narrower than current generation engines would leave plenty of space alongside the engine for the KERS system to be installed. This will please the accountants and the environmentalists - engineers should only care for the technical challenge. However this leaves out the most important people in the motorposrt equation - the fans! This is where the V-6 trumps, aurally it should be majestic in comparison with an inline-4. Anyone that has visited an F1 race will tell you that one of the first things that stand out compared with other racing series or watching on TV is the shear noise the cars make. The last thing you want is for a F1 car to sound like a Ford Focus with the exhaust removed. However I believe there is a 3rd way.

I have had the pleasure of riding in a Suzuki Joypop Turbo while living in Japan and I am sure some of you have ridden in or been passed by a SMART car. What do these cars and some lower-end spec vehicles have in common... they all have 3 cylinder. 3 cylinder engines sound similar to flat-6 engines as fitted to Porsche vehicles for many years. An inline-3 would have all the advantages of the 4-cylinder proposal but with a sound that is more likely to stir the soul. Another plus is that many road car manufacturers are moving to 3-cylinder engines as they downsize so the man in the street may feel that F1 technology is filtering down to everyman vehicles (even if this is not the actual case).

Given that 25 years ago BMW and Honda were getting 1200~1500bhp from 1.5 litre engines I see no reason why a 1 litre inline-3 with KERS would not produce adequate horsepower, spread of torque, economy and noise to keep everyone happy.

Blog introduction

This is my second blog. My first was to tell my family and friends what I was up to while living in Japan for 13 months. This blog however is to be a public affair.
It will be my musings on various subjects that take my interest and possibly take yours also. I hope that venting my views onto the world wide web will improve my journalistic skills and spark a revolution that can change the world... or not.

The background picture was taken by myself during the 2009 LeMans 24hr at the Dunlop Chicane.