The executive diretor of Renault, Cyril Abiteboul, has spoken of “terrifying” situation if they have to start again in the manufacture of their engines in 2021.
F1 lives in constant change. The changes of regulations from time to time are a challenge for all the teams of the championship. They even involve cycle changes. In fact, many of these changes are prepared to end hegemonies. It happened with the four consecutive championships of Red Bull and the different changes of the hybrid era are focused to reduce distances with Mercedes, the great dominator of the last years.
Looking ahead to 2021, the managers and heads of F1 have begun to discuss the change in regulations that will be implemented after the 2020 season. The following proposal is on the table: turbo hybrid concept of 1.6 liters will be maintained, but with changes that would include the elimination of the MGU-H, restrictions in the development and a higher limit of revolutions.
The engine manufactures of the championship, and who have had so many problems to adapt and make competitive hybrid engines, are very careful to these changes. The executive director of Renault, Cyril Abiteboul, does not want the changes to lead to a total change at a technical level: “We would like to avoid having to start from the beginning again, starting from the beginning again is quite terrifying“.
An adjective that gives a vision of how expensive it has been for motorists to build this engine, Cyril spoke about all the cost issue: “If I look at the investment that has been made in the engine, if I look at the time it has taken to reach a situation where there is no equality on the grid … but the engine is not a handicap anymore for the people of the chassis. That’s what you want: a disparity in which a team is not conditioned by its engine supplier to win races or do a good job”, said Abiteboul
The final decision on the new regulations has no date to be approved, but Renault wants to have guarantees to confirm its future plans: “We will not do new engine without knowing what the F1 will be like in 2021“, Abiteboul finished.
