Poll: 2014 F1 engines

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Overall I hate them.

Was lucky enough to be at the Chinese GP the last 2 years and also at Singapore last year. The V8s were incredibly loud, but heavenly, with me pretty much shedding a few tears as I heard a car thunder by for the first time in sheer awe

Singapore really showed how 20+ cars could fill a city with glorious noise and really made that whole party weekend the best I've ever had and will likely ever have! The race was initially quite boring with not much happening, but the last 15+ laps were as good a race as I could have ever hoped for and we had a cracking spot for all the overtakes down near the Marina.

Now..... well, they sound like a hedgehog and badger bugger fest, mixed in with some jeering seagull whining for good measure. Quite an interesting sound, but just soo quiet and lifeless. I honestly can't see myself going to a race with cars sounding this quiet as it would just be a huge disappointment.

Mon the V10s/V8s !

 

[FrankJH]

Agree it is ridiculous however it applies in the top line of most sports, look at some of things professional jockeys do or things boxers do to 'make weight'.

Dont follow boxing at all - but I can see a little (and I stress little) logic about how much weight a living thing has to carry to win a race. Horses have a finite limit of what they can carry easily (and while I know jockeys are usualy tiny in stature /weight anyway, its still worth baring in mind), the weight limits in F1 are pretty arbitrary.

Cars are however mechanical and baring in mind where the driver sits, I cant see an extra 5-10kg making any difference to the suspension etc (its not like he is off to one side or anything)

You are entitled to your opinion Greboth but I've been following F1 closely for 40 years and it used to be far more exciting than this. Granted the safety improvements are very welcome indeed, but F1 used to excite people and now it has become a shadow of its former self in my opinion.

Spot on - although Ive only been following F1 about 1/2 that time (still makes me feel old though lol)

 

[Spie]

I think this quote illustrates how ridiculous the present "fuel saving" ethos is.

Source = http://sploid.gizmodo.com/hear-the-shocking-difference-between-2013s-f1-racing-c-1545998083

I work at a track that hosts an F1 race. The amount of sea freight that we receive a few weeks before the race is pretty staggering. Most teams have 3 sets of "flyaway" kit that leapfrogs from race to race. The stuff that comes to us in Austin is usually mostly marked as coming from Japan, so all that stuff took a boat from Japan to Houston. Then, it all got trucked from Houston to Austin. It's a lot of stuff. A ridiculous amount. It's all stuff that can be sourced here in the USA too. The vast majority of it is used to set up the hospitality areas, but the team garage structures (wall systems, etc) are in there too.

We also receive seven big hard sided tents that get built in the paddock. Those tents ship from Germany, and then a crew of people fly over from Germany to assemble the tents. Same with the tents that the official F1 merch vendors use - they come from Germany with a build crew. There is a 21K sq ft tent that gets built in the paddock for the Paddock Club kitchen. I don't remember if that comes from Europe or is sourced locally. I do know that all the walk-in coolers and freezers outside that tent are brought in from Europe, as is all the kitchen equipment inside - so, however much equipment you'd find in a 21K sq ft commercial kitchen, that gets shipped all over the world.

As the race approaches, the air freight starts to arrive. This is how the stuff that actually looks like the equipment (including the cars) that a race team would use is shipped. Over the course of a few days, we get seven 747 loads of stuff. Some of it comes from the European bases, most of it comes from wherever the previous race was. For us, the past 2 years that's been Abu Dhabi - 8200 miles, give or take.

Once everything is set up in the paddock, there's more fuel to burn. Being a European based race series, all the race teams equipment runs on 240VAC 50 hz. Since that's not the standard power in the USA, we have to generate it. There are 3 big generators set up in the paddock, connected to a distribution system that's permanently installed in the building (and de-energized most of the year). Those generators get started up about a week before the race and run 24x7 until all the teams leave after the race.

The TV compound has a bunch of generators too. FOM brings a ton of generators to place all around the track for all their TV production equipment and race telemetry gear. All the giant screens are run off generators.

Rinse and repeat for 19 races on the calendar. The European races use a little less fuel, because the teams just truck all their crap around Europe. This year, 11 of the 19 races are NOT in Europe.

The whole green approach to F1 - fuel saving, cost saving (tyre warmers?) is nothing more than a superficial veneer for marketing purposes. I for one, am not taken in by it.

 

[MagicBoy]

The 80's turbo monsters were not that quiet. Yes, they sounded different, but they had unbelievable power too which compensated.

In terms of sound progression I think we can all agree that the V12s sounded best, followed closely by the V10s. The V8s still sounded awesome but today's V6s are a quantum leap backwards in aural pleasure.

Without anything like the power of the 80s turbos it's easy to understand why many feel F1 has been neutered. Even Chris Evan's referred to it as Formula Gone the other day.

80s turbos only ran unbelievable power in qualifying for a single lap at a time. They then swapped to a race car that could do more than a handful of laps without needing a new engine. Even in 85/86 race power was typically in the 800s, 87/88 it dropped with boost limits and fuel restrictions. The 2014 cars are not far off with 760(ish) counting the ERS.

As for the V12s ... the Honda V12 had a lovely bark, and the 93 Ferrari was a symphony!

 

[Skeeter]

So I take it you won't be going to an F1 race this year then Spie?

 

[Spie]

Throughout the history of F1, motor sport and road vehicles generally, power has increased with the passage of time. Not any more.

In 2014 F1 cars have less power than they did 30 years ago.

1984 Brabham BT53 - 900BHP qualifying, 800BHP race. This car had just 4 cylinders by the way.

Formula 1 has been castrated for image purposes alone. It is not what it was and it doesn't hold as much interest for me as it used to. I will not attend an F1 race again until F1 regains some of its excitement, outrageous noise and the feeling of being at the cutting edge of performance not economy.

 

[this_is_gav]

Throughout the history of F1, motor sport and road vehicles generally, power has increased with the passage of time. Not any more.

In 2014 F1 cars have less power than they did 30 years ago.

In 2014 F1 cars have more power than they did 35 years ago.

 

[MagicBoy]

They're restricting the power for two reasons - safety and cost.

Safety - Modern circuits wouldn't be able to contain a 1200bhp car with modern aerodynamics. It's no co-incidence that the F1 turbos were phased out after Elio de Angelia and the Group B Rally car related accidents in 1986.

If the FIA don't attempt to cap the costs then the teams can't afford to compete. I'm surprised it didn't fold after all the manufactures bolted in 2008 if I'm honest. The 1984 BMW engine would struggle to complete a 200 mile race at 800bhp, the new power units are deisgned for 2500 miles. It's just profligate waste, and the money has to come from somewhere.

On the less power than 30 years ago thing, 20+ of the last 30 years were sub 800bhp as well by my rough man maths.

 

[~Mike~]

aslong as the racing is good, im not fussed what the sound like.

This, the racing needs to be good otherwise it's just boring.

I don't mind the sound of the cars and it was nice to hear all the other sounds in Australia that we didn't hear before. Tyre's squealing, team radio is clear, crowd cheering etc.

 

[Guerrilla]

I don't mind them too much, yes ideally they would be louder but it isn't the end of the world... If that is the biggest complaint this season i will be more than happy with that.

At the moment I'm quite enjoying the novelty of the various other sounds which can be heard now too.

 

[Skeeter]

Throughout the history of F1, motor sport and road vehicles generally, power has increased with the passage of time. Not any more.

In 2014 F1 cars have less power than they did 30 years ago.

1984 Brabham BT53 - 900BHP qualifying, 800BHP race. This car had just 4 cylinders by the way.

Formula 1 has been castrated for image purposes alone. It is not what it was and it doesn't hold as much interest for me as it used to. I will not attend an F1 race again until F1 regains some of its excitement, outrageous noise and the feeling of being at the cutting edge of performance not economy.

2013 cars had less than 900bhp.
So did 2012 cars...
And 2011...
And the V10s in 2005...

I don't get your rant?

 

[Duke]

I don't mind them too much, yes ideally they would be louder but it isn't the end of the world... If that is the biggest complaint this season i will be more than happy with that.

At the moment I'm quite enjoying the novelty of the various other sounds which can be heard now too.

Sums up what I was going to post.

 

[Yaayuh!]

I like the sound of them them but feel as though they should maybe tweak them or the onboard broadcasting equipment, for them to be louder.

 

[Malt_Vinegar]

Nothing wrong with making it relevant.
The noise will be the last thing people are talking about come the end of the year.
Its like when the wide wings came in, grooved tyres, no traction control, no active ride, not skirts. There is an initial uproar that fades slowly till everyone forgets.

F1 is about innovation, going as fast as you can within the rules, and using clever engineering/strategy along with great drivers to get the best possible results.

Sure, I would love V12, V10, or V8 engines back for the noise, but we would have a dying sport, with no new teams, and no industry relevance.

If you want to endulge in nostalgia, watch F1 classics races, or attend Goodwood.

 

[FrankJH]

Nothing wrong with making it relevant.
The noise will be the last thing people are talking about come the end of the year.
Its like when the wide wings came in, grooved tyres, no traction control, no active ride, not skirts. There is an initial uproar that fades slowly till everyone forgets.

F1 is about innovation, going as fast as you can within the rules, and using clever engineering/strategy along with great drivers to get the best possible results.

Sure, I would love V12, V10, or V8 engines back for the noise, but we would have a dying sport, with no new teams, and no industry relevance.

If you want to endulge in nostalgia, watch F1 classics races, or attend Goodwood.

If you believe everything you read.

RBR / Renault, McLaren, Merc, Ferrari, Williams, probably Sauber and FI too would all be there , and I doubt the sport would be "dying".

Cost savings & lower fuel is all a marketing ploy , nothing more nothing less.

(lower costs may appeal to the back end of the grid, but as soon as they start becoming moderately successful they want to spend more to move further up the grid)

 

[4T5]

Was kind of strange for me getting up at 5am to watch the opening race live & then not hearing any engines

Being old I like noise with my racing, I'm not clever enough to get into the whole tech spec & marketing **** **** I just want race cars to sound like race cars & race bikes to sound like race bikes, Is that to much to ask ?

 

[Ryan-3]

1984 Brabham BT53 - 900BHP qualifying, 800BHP race. This car had just 4 cylinders by the way.

The page that talks about the engine actually has different figures to the one linked, but I get what you mean. I personally like the changes, hopefully they get a little extra noise from the engines, but the technologies pioneered by the sport will make their way into road cars in some form, meaning we can have engines like those in the A45 AMG. Like an exploded bomb one second, reasonably frugal the next.

I'm guessing the old M12 engine certainly wouldn't last the current race length with 100Kg of fuel either.

 

[this_is_gav]

Being old I like noise with my racing, I'm not clever enough to get into the whole tech spec & marketing **** **** I just want race cars to sound like race cars & race bikes to sound like race bikes, Is that to much to ask ?

You don't watch much endurance racing then?

There's always the big blocks you've got across the pond, then if you carry on across the other pond there are more big blocks. The F1 engines are currently trying to be awesome, not sound awesome.

 

[Spie]

Trying to be awesome or trying to be green? Either way as I and others have said, it's all marketing BS.

 

[deuse]

I'm with Bernie on this one...I hate the fart sound.