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Aston Martin to decide on F1 entry in "early 2019"

Published on 16 Jan 2018 12:25
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By: Fergal Walsh

Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer has admitted that the British company will spend the next twelve months evaluating entering Formula 1 in 2021 as an engine manufacturer. Its name will be back on the grid this season, after it signed a title sponsorship deal with Red Bull Racing.

F1's engine regulations are set to be shaken up in 2021, as Liberty Media presented its plans to manufacturers in 2017. Despite current manufacturers Renault, Mercedes and Ferrari voicing their disapproval, Aston Martin remain interested.

Palmer says that the complexity and cost of the engines need to decrease in order for Aston Martin to consider returning to the grid. With the MGU-H being scrapped in the regulation change plans, Palmer remains firm on simpler engines needed to sprout a return.

"The big cost, the big complexity, it really comes around the H. That’s where you’re seeing unreliability, it’s where you’re seeing costs, and for what level of return? The problem is teams allegedly now have 80 to 100 people working on a bloody turbocharger. That level of cost is nuts, and also takes it out of our reach. I don’t have that many people to work on a turbocharger.”

"What I will do now is go through the options of partners, talk to shareholders as much as anything to test and challenge me," he added. "Get into some form of single-cylinder development. Ultimately I would think early ’19 make a decision of go [or] no-go. So you’ve got the regulations laid out in front of you, you know what the limitations are, you know what your technology is broadly capable of, and then you start spending."

Fergal Walsh

Barron

Posts: 625

Well his big thing is the ‘bottom end’. Whoa easy there! He suggests standardisation of the bottom end ie same crank/rod/piston assy. In one context I agree, but I am overall against any inter team uniformity of the engineering/tech of F1. Spec series anyone? No, that’s not a pinnacle of an... [Read more]

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Jan 16 2018 - 19:33

F1 News Jolyon Palmer Mercedes Red Bull Racing Renault Ferrari

Replies (6)

calle.itw

Posts: 8,527
Wont that be a bit late?
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- Jan 16 2018 - 12:52
- Kean
  
  Posts: 692
  Likely yes.
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  Jan 16 2018 - 14:34
- Pauli
  
  Posts: 140
  I agree. It sounds too late to challenge any of top 3 PUs. But it sounds like they already now commit some R&D work towards it. Then based on how the R&D meats targets they decide if they scale it to full PU development and later entry to F1. That would mean they have about 3 years time to build something that works.
  
  Mercedes used at least 3 years development with experienced team before 2014. Now they have nearly 200hp more power with 4 years development work.
  
  But MGU-H is probably the hardest component to develop so removing it or standardizing would make it much more realistic for a new entry to be competitive.
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  Jan 16 2018 - 15:47
- calle.itw
  
  Posts: 8,527
  I think standardize is the key here. I really cant see Aston Martin entering unless the designs are standardized.
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  Jan 16 2018 - 18:48
Barron

Posts: 625
Well his big thing is the ‘bottom end’. Whoa easy there! He suggests standardisation of the bottom end ie same crank/rod/piston assy. In one context I agree, but I am overall against any inter team uniformity of the engineering/tech of F1. Spec series anyone? No, that’s not a pinnacle of anything, that’s the dumbing down to the lowest achievable level. I still root for an ‘open’ engine formula so that you can bring any design to the table as long as it complies with certain debatable criteria. I realise that the original turbo/NA era didn’t fare well for the NA runners but perhaps they didn’t consider the rules hard enough. It’s difficult to devise a turbo/NA equivilancy but it could be done with fuel allowances. Anyway, I believe PU manufacturers should be able to bring any concept of race engine to the party as long as it fits certain criteria. I would love to see L4’s against V6’s against 5 litre V anything N/A’s.. Ok, enough rant for today..
- + 1
- Jan 16 2018 - 19:33
- Pauli
  
  Posts: 140
  Turbo ICEs have higher thermal efficiency than NA. Specially F1 engine with MGUH because it can convert some of energy left in exhaust to electric energy which can be used to generate kinetic energy. Also difference between Turbo and NA is not exactly same everywhere because NA engines lose relatively more power when air pressure is lower (Mexico, Brasil and Austria)
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  Jan 16 2018 - 20:21