Ferrari’s engine customers have reacted warily to a call from Red Bull to freeze power unit development at the end of the 2021 F1 season
Red Bull hopes to take over the production of Honda’s power units after the Japanese manufacturer leaves the sport at the end of next year. However it will only do so if it doesn’t have to bear the high costs of developing upgraded engines.The team, whose junior outfit AlphaTauri also uses Hondas, has suggested introducing an engine freeze at the end of next year until Formula 1’s next engine specification is introduced. However that could lock-in a disadvantage for teams powered by Ferrari, who are believed to have the weakest engines at present.
Haas team principal Guenther Steiner said a freeze should only happen if there is “parity” between the different units.
“If they freeze the engine now if the engines are at parity and then freeze them I’m okay with that,” he said. “But that is not my decision. I don’t have a vote in that one, to be honest.”
Steiner said the power unit manufacturers should consider whether the current technology has matured to the point that further spending would only yield minor improvements.
“I think it’s more the PU manufacturers saying we developed this engine now for, five, six years, how much money do we need to put in to get a little bit of an advantage out of it? Is it worthwhile or should we focus on the long-term future of what is the best technology?
“I’ve got an opinion [but] I’ve got no votes. I’m not here nor there because I cannot decide it anyway. But in general, I am open for everything. If you want to make change it’s fine, if we stay like this, what can I do?”
Alfa Romeo team principal Frederic Vasseur agreed it is chiefly a question for the power unit suppliers, but suspects there may by vested interests at play.
“We are expecting to have a cheaper engine, for sure. But at the end of the day, we have to take care with these kind of requests to freeze the engine. It’s always coming from someone who has a personal interest. I remember that during the discussion that we had last winter that Honda was pushing to avoid to freeze the engine.
“I think that they have to discuss it between them but not to take a decision not based on what’s happened last year or in the last six months, but on what could happen the next 10 years.”
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Hiland (@flyingferrarim)
23rd October 2020, 19:24
I’m mixed on the engine “freeze” proposal. I would need to know more in how this “freeze” would work. If teams are allowed to update various pieces to improve performance/durability/etc or allowed X amount of updates over a course of a season each year. Then I could be okay with that. However, if these engines will be “sealed” units with no updates for several seasons. I would be against that as that is against the F1 DNA.
Captain Pie (@captainpie)
23rd October 2020, 19:28
If I remember correctly (may not be!) previous engine freeze was a freeze on performance related changes. Only allowing for reliability changes.
erikje
23rd October 2020, 19:33
And more importantly.. wich parts of the engine will be “frozen”.
If that is only the ICE i guess there is room for updates of the hybrid system. Mostly software updates and small technical innovation.
The kind of innovation that is or can be useful for the car market.
If all systems are frozen i guess the advantage Mercedes has will stay. Ferrari suggested the new engine they already have on the dyno was a big improvement. renault looks on par and needs to work on reliability and Honda suggests a big step next year. So it depends on what parts will be frozen.
A frozen ice where only small gains are to be made, would be a simple step.
Hiland (@flyingferrarim)
23rd October 2020, 19:37
Good points.
dutchtreat (@dutchtreat)
23rd October 2020, 19:53
Of course Kimi’s engine is already frozen.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
23rd October 2020, 20:13
An engine freeze just seems to go against the whole essence of what F1 is all about. I’m guessing there’s a whole section of engineers back at the engine manufacturer’s R & D centre who are busy working on engine upgrades and on the machine tool upgrades to make those new engines. If there’s an engine improvement freeze then what are all those engineers going to do? I suppose they’ll be reassigned to some other part of the company. Then later on there will be an unfreeze or even a new engine format, and the engine manufacturers will be wanting those engineers back, but they’ll have to relearn half of what they learnt, they won’t be at the cutting edge of technology, and their machining tools will be out of date too.
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
23rd October 2020, 20:42
What F1 needs is an engine worth developing.
I purpose engine parity, limit max o
NewVerstappenFan (@jureo)
23rd October 2020, 20:43
Limit max output, but how and using what technology is up to the teams.
These engines as great as they are, are not worth developing.
DB-C90 (@dbradock)
24th October 2020, 2:23
It would be interesting to know what their reactions would ha e been last year before the Ferrari PU was modified under the secret agreement.
There have been some interest ion questions though about just what would be “frozen” in terms of hardware and software. Similarly, whilst we will never get to know exactly, I’d love to know just what is changed when a supplier brings an upgrade to their PU. Is it the ICE that is modified, some part of the hybrid set up or software (or a combination)
I’m not totally against a freeze, providing, as I’d expect after having 12 months to make changes, Ferrari bring an upgraded and improved PU for 2021 and that all the players PU’s are fairly close in performance.
As much as it might make a good story – team manufacturing its “own” PU, I still think though that RBR will do a deal with Renault, the bad blood will be put aside, and Renault will have to suffer being soundly beaten by their customer and the “Honda” PU will be relegated to history again.