Formula 1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone wants the engine manufacturers to offer a cheaper version of their V6 power units to financially struggling teams.
In his latest blog, Adam Cooper explains that these ‘low-cost’ customer engines would run alongside their works counterparts. That would mean that about half the grid would use the ‘affordable’ engines. The big hurdle is to know how the FIA would ensure some form of parity. “I never wanted to go back to V8s, I wanted to set up a single engine to be in F1, which they could run for let’s say 10% of what these manufacturers spend,” Ecclestone told Cooper. “It would be a different regulation, which would be cheaper. If the manufacturers then decide this would be a good thing, then that’s OK. Or if they want to supply [current] engines at a realistic price to the teams, then good”. This proposal can also be seen as a way of putting pressure on the engine suppliers to lower the prices for the current V6 turbo hybrid power units. Indeed, costs went up considerably in the move from V8s to the V6 hybrids last year, and midfield teams feel that they are funding the R&D of the works teams.
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