I have been thinking on this. Whats most important on a F1 engine is relible, power, fuel consumption. Power is not just hp that most people think. Most important is torque and have it on the right rpm. I think now the engines can go up to 18000rpm. Thats because the low displacement. I think they could go up to 4l. Then about chargers. Turbo or Supercharger?. Turbo gives more torque and dont use as much fuel as Supercharger. Turbo is also better for this kind of power. Then about cylinders. More cylinders is an easy way to get power. The biggest i think can go for a V engine is 12 cylinders. That would also be good for the displacement. On V engine biturbo is the easiest way.
Ferrari F1 engine that Giles Villeneuve was driving around in the Ferrari 162C2 F1 car (i think) in the early 1980s had 1200bhp from 1.5litres!!!!!!!!!!
(but only for qualifying - called the Grenad engine 'cos it would blow up after 4-5 laps!)
i do think they could use much more powerful engines on F1 but if they dont do so its because the tracks and the rest of the car (suspension, tyres etc) wont allow for so much power, i believe there is a reason for everything and if they dont put so much power on f1 cars it has to be due to some really good reason, besides, weight saving is important too and the use of a turbo would be less professional
In F1 BMW had a 1.5 liter 4-cyl engine based on the block from the 3-series with KKK turbo (big). The dyno's scale wasn't enough for the qualification engine. So all they could say is well over 1400bhp... Go Paul Rosche!
Modern F1 engines don't need much reliability (compared to i.e. ALMS) or even that much torque, because they can keep the engine at very specific revs all the time. I guess the main thing is peak power from a light and compact engine which will take the punishment of one race. Even if Ferrari F1 engines are reliable, they won't last much more laps than the race takes.
No rules would be insane. Who would drive a car with so much wings and horsepower. Think about it, who wants to risk losing it even in the tightest and slowest bend with the car having so much hp and downforce? It would mean taking the smallest hairpin at god knows what speed, not to mention how fast Eau Rouge will go! They wouldn't even have enough reaction time to avoid a car that blows its engine.
renault supposedly had the most powerful of the turbo F1 engines. 1.5 litre v6 that in qualifying trim dynoed regularly at 1500hp and they saw power spikes much higher than that. Totally rediculous and awesome all at that smae time. Unfortunatly because Of the toluene based fuels engine failures (which happened frequently) were a firey show
Well wieght isn't a big issue nowadays because the regulation sais that a F1 car has to atleast weigh 800kg. The curb weight of the cars are way below that so they have to carry around some ballast.
Power and fuel consumption varies per track. They can set the engine the way they want depending on their strategy.
The most important thing is reliability because all the other factors don't matter that much these days. In the old days you'd see teams and drivers maxing out their cars, taking a chance wether the car would break or not. That was part of the excitement. Today those cars are so solid you hardly see a car dropout because of mechanic problems, maybe 1 or 2 per race. It's become a safe unexciting wussy sport over the years.
With the new regulations reliability and durability will become even more important because 1 engine has to atleast last 2 races. The rich teams used to throw away their engines after a race while poor teams used to revise their engines. To close a huge gap between the rich and poor teams the FIAA made a new set of regulations.
Another very important fearure thats been forgoten is programibilty. Mechanics have to be able to quickly reprogram an engine when something is wrong or they just want a different setting.
btw: These days you also have to qualify with the engine you are going to race with, the so called "grenade engines" are outlawed. I once saw one of those engines on TV. When they put it in it was still brand new, after a 12 rounds of qualifying the engine was totally in ruines. The drivers also used to drive differently during qualifying rounds, when a driver was sure he wasn't going to post a good time he used to hang back and drive the round out slowly because he wanted to save the engine.
if ever there were an engine that was designed to hold up rock solid to severe abuse, it is a bmw. Weight is an issue so as to give freedom in weight distrobution. I realize an engine can be tuned to need, but a more efficient and robust engine will natrally be at advantage. As far as reliability, BMW has this down. Quality has yet to endure serious reproach, which is a huge selling point.
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