Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner has become the first of the leading bosses to throw support behind the proposed changes to the current Formula 1 engines put forward by the FIA and F1 leadership last week for 2021.
The Briton has been known as a critic of the current turbo hybrids since their introduction in 2014, which resulted in his Red Bull team losing their status as the dominant team on the grid to Mercedes who have won both championships each year since.
But he claims his dislike stems from a belief that the current units are too influential in determining performance and are too complex, taking the emphasis away from the driver.
Offering his view on the ideas set out, Horner is excited by what he sees as a shared vision put out, targeting many of the criticisms he and others have had of the current engines.
“I have to say I was very encouraged with what I saw, for once the FIA and FOM were absolutely aligned in what their vision of an engine is for the future,” he said. “The really encouraging thing for me, it wasn’t so much the specification, but I accept that we live in a modern world and a V6 turbo engine has been elected.
“They’ve put a key amount of focus on several factors – one being the sound. It’s got to come back into F1, it’s part of the heritage, the makeup,” Horner added.
“The other is that for an independent team such as Red Bull is really encouraging is that they want to ensure as a customer you get absolute parity, not just on the product but on electronics as well, so electrical settings will have to be homologated. So the FIA will have to say ‘like for like they’ll have to be the same as on a works car’.
“The other thing is that there’ll be large elements of standardisation of certain components like turbos and perhaps prescriptive design.”
Though the final regulations for 2021 are still far from agreed, based on what he has seen so far, the Red Bull boss believes there will be a shift away from the current engine domination in F1.
“There’s going to be less variance between engine manufacturers,” he predicted. “We have too big a spread at the moment and it puts too much pressure on the chassis side of things.
“I think the FIA has basically looked at the engine and said: one, it costs too much; two, it’s not delivering from an acoustic point of view; and three, it’s too much of a performance differentiator from the best to the worst and I think they’re really narrowing that gap. As an entrance, your biggest or bigger influence will be on chassis.”
Two teams have backed the proposals with Haas boss Guenther Steiner offering his backing, but much of the attention will likely be on the negative response from three of the current engine suppliers, Renault, Mercedes and particularly Ferrari.
“Obviously, there are a few engine or works teams that weren’t as happy with that outlay because that’s dumbing down one of the key elements of F1,” Horner said. “But I think the drivers are the biggest importance, teams or chassis secondary, and the engine tertiary.”
