13 replies to this topic

[AustinF1]

Purnell: FIA should cap engine costs:

 

http://www.independe...er-9874319.html

[pingu666]

hes right

[Murl]

I think the engine manufacturers should be free to spend as much as they like on development. It should be a free for all with no restrictions in season or during the off season.
 

There should be no engine reliability criteria, other than a fresh engine need last the length of one Grand Prix.

 

To be eligible for points, the engine manufacturers should supply a pool of engines at each race from which entrants are able to draw, at random only, for the cost of say $3 million - per car per SEASON.

 

In this way the engine manufacturers can choose appropriate technologies - or they can pour billions into F1 in order to achieve glory, and power the whole grid.

 

In this way there is no limit placed on technology.

[FerrariV12]

Wouldn't have a problem with this - the big manufacturers can spend as much as they want but they have to eat the costs themselves.

 

Won't happen for now though, Mercedes will say "why should we spend more money when we're against changing the freeze rules in the first place?"

[johnmhinds]

I think the engine manufacturers should be free to spend as much as they like on development. It should be a free for all with no restrictions in season or during the off season.
 

There should be no engine reliability criteria, other than a fresh engine need last the length of one Grand Prix.

 

To be eligible for points, the engine manufacturers should supply a pool of engines at each race from which entrants are able to draw, at random only, for the cost of say $3 million - per car per SEASON.

 

In this way the engine manufacturers can choose appropriate technologies - or they can pour billions into F1 in order to achieve glory, and power the whole grid.

 

In this way there is no limit placed on technology.

 

You can't have uncapped development costs with capped sales costs. The sales cost would in effect be a cap on development.

[pdac]

You can't have uncapped development costs with capped sales costs. The sales cost would in effect be a cap on development.

 

Of course you can, that's the whole point. It provides a 'soft' cap on the development costs. They are free to spend more than they will recoup in sales or keep within a budget that matches the sale cost. It will settle to either all of the manufacturers spending approximately the same (low) amount or one or two will throw money at their projects for the prestige of proving they are the best. And the latter will die away as one will win out and they their board will question why they are spending so much and cut the budget back (kind of like the space race)

[johnmhinds]

Of course you can, that's the whole point. It provides a 'soft' cap on the development costs. They are free to spend more than they will recoup in sales or keep within a budget that matches the sale cost. It will settle to either all of the manufacturers spending approximately the same (low) amount or one or two will throw money at their projects for the prestige of proving they are the best. And the latter will die away as one will win out and they their board will question why they are spending so much and cut the budget back (kind of like the space race)

 

The solution to the teams losing money isn't to flip it upside down and make the engine manufacturers lose money.....

 

It would be nice if an iPhone 6 cost the same amount as a Nokia candy bar phone, but if you made them charge the same price then the iPhone would never be developed in the first place.

 

If the teams want to use these high tech engines then they need to pay the high tech prices, or the engines wont be developed.

But if the teams can't afford the high tech engines then the FIA needs to change the regulations to lower the cost of engine development.

[FerrariV12]

The solution to the teams losing money isn't to flip it upside down and make the engine manufacturers lose money.....

 

It would be nice if an iPhone 6 cost the same amount as a Nokia candy bar phone, but if you made them charge the same price then the iPhone would never be developed in the first place.

 

If the teams want to use these high tech engines then they need to pay the high tech prices, or the engines wont be developed.

But if the teams can't afford the high tech engines then the FIA needs to change the regulations to lower the cost of engine development.

 

I see what you're saying, but from what I gather it was the engine manufacturers pushing for the new engines rather than the teams, for marketing and R&D reasons, so it's only fair that their marketing and R&D budgets take some/more of the hit.

[johnmhinds]

I see what you're saying, but from what I gather it was the engine manufacturers pushing for the new engines rather than the teams, for marketing and R&D reasons, so it's only fair that their marketing and R&D budgets take some/more of the hit.

Or the FIA could have done its job and written the regulations so they were were financially viable instead of being pushed around by the engine manufacturers.

But this is the FIA that says it wants cost cutting in public interviews and then writes rules in stupid contrived ways so that they raise the cost every time...

[pingu666]

they spend tons on refining the engines/anything in f1, so if the costs to customers get capped, then manufactors will have to manage what they spend more closely

[redreni]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, if you look at the most costly activities and cap them or ban them (e.g. track testing, wind tunnel testing, CFD) you won't reduce overall spending at all. Teams will spend on something else. So I wouldn't stop engine manufacturers spending whatever they want, but I would favour placing them under an obligation to be prepared to supply at least three teams each with engines for, say, £4m per team for a season's supply. That way, if they want to spend more than they need to on their engine, they would be able to, but they would have to pay the entire cost themselves, rather than forcing their customers to share the burden with them.

[maverick69]

Horner was having a good rant about it today on the BBC....... which is odd considering that Red Bull totally stuck two fingers up at the RRA.........

[mercedessurearepopularnow]

Too late...an engine cost cap now would just lock Mercedes to the front row until the engines were significantly changed (though that is essentially going to happen anyway).

[Fastcake]

It's a sensible and achievable solution, that could definitely help to cut costs for the teams that are desperately struggling.

 

So it won't happen, naturally.