Ferrari threatens to quit in protest of an F1 shake-up!
Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne has put up doubts on its existence in racing post-Liberty Media’s engine proposal for 2021. Engine blueprints for 2021 by F1’s owner includes removing MGU-H, maintaining the road relevancy of F1’s power units, an intention to increasing the sound and reducing the cost of the sport’s engines, but the same has not been taken up well by manufacturers like Ferrari and Mercedes.
Liberty Media, took charge of F1 in January, wants to level the playing field both on-track and off-track and their engine plans include cheaper, louder and simpler power units.
Speaking to the analyst, Marchionne said while he agreed with cutting costs, he was actually unhappy with the direction Liberty Media is taking F1. It is also not the first time Ferrari has threatened to leave the sport for changing regulations, but this quit threat has come up after a long time. “I understand that Liberty may have taken these into account in coming up with their views, but I think it needs to be absolutely clear that unless we find a set of circumstances, the results of which are beneficial to the maintenance of the brand, and the marketplace, and to the strengthening of the unique position for Ferrari, Ferrari will not play.”
On the other hand, Mercedes also voiced their opinion.
Toto Wolff, team principal of the sport’s four-time champions and Ferrari’s greatest rivals Mercedes, told Auto Motor und Sport: “Certain things are right, but it’s not quite there. It is a vision and not yet a regulation. And it’s only their [FIA and FOM] vision and not the manufacturers.
“The concept sounds similar to what we have now,” Wolff added. “But it means a completely new development that will mean we are working on two engines at the same time between 2018 and 2020.
F1’s 2021 engine plans at a glance (Source)
- The 2021 power unit to be a 1.6 Litre, V6 Turbo Hybrid
- 3000rpm higher engine running speed range to improve the sound
- Prescriptive internal design parameters to restrict development costs and discourage extreme designs and running conditions
- Removal of the MGU-H
- More powerful MGU-K with focus on manual driver deployment in race together with option to save up energy over several laps to give a driver controlled tactical element to racing
- Single turbo with dimensional constraints and weight limits
- Standard energy store and control electronics
- High Level of external prescriptive design to give ‘Plug-And-Play’ engine/chassis/transmission swap capability
- Intention to investigate tighter fuel regulations and limits on number of fuels used
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