Engine homologation: complete cost control failure

[kalinka]

This sort of thing goes against the spirit of F1.

Yes and yes! As a contract with single tyre manufacturer, as a single ECU provider, as a single manufacturer of the crash structure...etc..
F1 is already gone this way, just more radical than my idea - only one company for every part. I said I don't like it - just..my idea could be a compromised way that I could swallow if I must as an F1 fan. Why not 2-3 tyre manufacturer, 2-3 for ECU, 3-4 for engine? Yes, it's against everything we used to, but it's still better than only one manufacturer as in case of tyres. Development still could be allowed but in a controlled way...as everything - including the money - goes trough FIA, they can control the development race more strictly. They will be aware if some of the manufactures begin to spend fortunes for some exotic development - which is unlikely, because their budget would be fixed.
I tell you again - it's just a weird idea with no realistic chance - I know. So I will not argue any more for my idea, because it's not realistic enough to spend time over it. Sorry.
Let's see some more down to earth proposals!

[GitanesBlondes]

The tire issue is down to no other tire supplier wanting to get involved other than Pirelli.

If the wheel diameter is increased in the future, that's when you will see Michelin involved again.

[dragosmp]

The tire issue is down to no other tire supplier wanting to get involved other than Pirelli.

If the wheel diameter is increased in the future, that's when you will see Michelin involved again.

We could argue the other way around, that the rules are written in such a way as to eliminate Michelin from the race. I heard that Michelin spends quite a bit of time doing research on the tire wall structure, materials in order to improve safety, energy loss thru deformation, etc. All that I think is pointless if the rims are 13" and the outer diameter of the tire corresponds to what we'd have on the street on a 17"er - the wall is all wrong.

Off-topic maybe, I was looking at the Formula E pics with 18" rims. Were it not for the back of the Dallara chassis I'd say that looks better than an F1 based only on the looks of the wheels. I'd like to see big rims on F1

[wesley123]

Actually I was thinking about the same thing. Absolute freedom for engine manufacturer. Any engine, any fuel (with the excpetion of poisonous substances), only with the limit of the energy of the fluid in the tank. And strict control over the price of the engine which is easiest to do with the contracting.

I am pretty sure that if rules weren't so strict it should be possible to manufacture powerful and economic engine at a much less cost than of the engines today.

I agree, that would be a good idea. Plus, it would mix up the field a bit, bring it a bit closer and make total domination much harder. Why? Because one engine might have higher horse power and work better on monza, while the other might lack power and have a much smoother power curve and work better somewhere else. It takes the single optimum away from F1.