Here’s a topic that just won’t go away. After F1 chief Bernie Ecclestone stated that Formula 1 should return to using V8 engines, now it was Force India‘s Robert Fernley singing to pretty much the same tune.
Yes, V8 engines with KERS would help keep costs down. Though if speed and sound is your main concern, teams could always give the current V6 units a bump in power.
According to Fernley, the best solution would be allowing both types of engines to compete against each other – which is a very interesting idea.
Fernley told Autosport that “the the V6 hybrid is clearly the engine of choice for the manufacturers. It is going to be around and it is a great engine – we are showing that. However, I think that looking at an alternative parity engine, using maybe a V8 with KERS that is much more affordable for the independent teams, has a lot of merit.”
We doubt that those in charge are going to go that route any time soon, but if it was to happen, now or in the future, it would be interesting to have cars racing with different types of engines, especially in this suggested configuration of V8s for the customer teams and V6 hybrids for the factory teams.
“I think Formula 1 as a whole has helped the manufacturers develop the V6 hybrid, but we need to look at the commercial aspects of it,” added Fernley when referring to the issue of cutting costs and how much cheaper switching back to V8 units could be.
We’ll definitely know more in the next couple of seasons, but so far it looks like F1 is sticking with the new hybrid V6 engines.
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