The 2014 Engine Changes

[tderias]

I'm guessing everyone here is already aware of the regulation changes concerning the engines, which will be effective starting the 2014 Season. If you haven't, well, the FIA are planning to change the current 2.4 litre V8 engines to 1.6 V6 engines. The RPM is set to a maximum of 15,000, after having been recently changed from 12,000.
Many F1 fans fear that the distinctive sound of the Formula 1 car will vanish amidst the the ongoing changes to engine specifications, which reduced the monstrous V12s that were used in the past to the V6s that will be used in 2014.

Here's some tidbits of what the FIA has to say about it as of yet:

Q: Will a V6 use more fuel, or have inferior economy compared with the original proposal?
A: No. To push the engineers to develop engine efficiency, the technical regulation imposes a fuel flow control. When evolving the regulation to fit with the manufacturers' new request this parameter has not been changed. Thus the efficiency requirement will be unchanged.

Q: Why has the rev limit been increased from 12,000rpm to 15,000rpm. Is this purely to enhance the sound of a Formula One car?
A: No. This parameter has been updated from 12000rpm to 15000 rpm to allow engineers more flexibility in power and energy management. However, as a consequence of the new architecture (V6) and the change in rev-limit, the engine will sound different, but will remain representative of Formula One.

Q: Will these energy recovery systems and other efficiency devices ultimately influence the development of road cars?
A: Yes. The clear need for the automotive industry to reduce emissions means energy management will increasingly become a key factor in the development of more efficient powertrains. Kinetic energy recovery is already applied in Formula One and the introduction of exhaust energy recovery will add another technology route to be explored. Formula One will also return to its role as a developer of turbo-charger technology. This research will have real-world benefits, contributing valuable knowledge that will be of use to future road car development.

So, what's the forum's opinion?

[F1Fan88]

Maybe if they want F1 to be so eco-friendly maybe they should give a max horsepower limit and leave the rest of the specification empty, that way engine manufacturers will be forced to make the most economic engines as that will be the only advantage they will be able to gain over competitors.

[phil1993]

I want V10s/V12s with 20,000 rpm limit (if we have to have a limit) to hear them screaming on the edge. Like 2003-4, lots of engine kabooms.

When was the last time we had a properly spectacular engine failure? I miss those.

[Eric_Cartman]

I think Alonso's engine failure in Malaysia 2010 was pretty impressive

[SpliT]

Vettel's engine in Korea 2010 too.

[Mitsuro Sano]

Kartikeyan in Sepang right after going out of his pit garage ^^

They shouldn't put rev limit on the engine to relaunch the engine battles. Not only with their fuel restriction and the number of engine limited will forced the engine manufacturer to make a reliable engine, but also it may help with overtaking manoeuvre. Indeed, since 2007, lot of passing wasn't done because drivers banging the rev limiter.

I wonder how the V6 turbo will sound like with a 7 speed semi-automatic gearbox. Will we heard the same beautiful sound of the late 80's ?

[cformula1]

These engine regulations are a lot better than the ones that they were originally planning on using. The delay until 2014 (as opposed to 2013) is also good because the current regulations seem to be working well at the moment. I hope that the newV6 engines sound good (they will be undoubtedly better than the 4-cylinder ones that were originally proposed).