A postponement of the proposed 2013 engine rules is “almost certain”, according to the authoritative Italian magazine Autosprint.
With engine makers including Ferrari, Mercedes and Cosworth no longer support the four-cylinder turbo regulations, FIA president Jean Todt has agreed to consider a delayed introduction date.

Following consultation with the suppliers, including Renault who have threatened to quit F1 if the 2013 rules do not debut as scheduled, Todt will make his decision at the end of this month.

“I personally feel we’ve got to seek a compromise,” McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh, also chairman of the teams association FOTA, is quoted by the magazine Motorsport.

“If it were my call I’d probably go for a turbocharged V6,” he revealed.

McLaren – like Mercedes GP and Force India – is powered by Mercedes-Benz, whose motor racing vice-president Norbert Haug said: “I think establishing rules and then have only two, three manufacturers who are committed is just a problematic situation that needs to be solved together.”

Meanwhile, Autosprint reported that the full blown diffuser ban for 2012 will be policed by mandating that the exhausts exit at the top of the rear of the engine cover.

“It seems to have been Ferrari, represented at the (technical working group) meeting for the first time by Pat Fry, who proposed this solution,” said the report.

Bernie Ecclestone has organised a meeting of the F1 Commission in an attempt to formally scuttle the proposed engine rules for 2013.
That is the claim of the German magazine Auto Motor und Sport, revealing that the meeting will take place on Wednesday.

The report said F1 chief executive Ecclestone, a staunch critic of the proposed rules, believes FIA president Jean Todt improperly introduced the four-cylinder turbos by bypassing the official bodies including the F1 Commission.

Despite Renault’s apparent threat to quit F1 over the controversy, Ecclestone is understood to have attempted to overturn the rules with a recent vote of the World Motor Sport Council.

The rules narrowly survived and Wednesday’s F1 Commission is his ‘plan B’ according to Auto Motor und Sport, with the 80-year-old also not ruling out a legal challenge.

Engine supplier Renault has confirmed its serious concerns about the dithering over formula one’s engine regulations for 2013.
FIA president Jean Todt wants to push ahead with the ‘greener’ four-cylinder turbo route, but has admitted the rules might be delayed due to concerns expressed by Cosworth, Ferrari and Mercedes.

Managing director Jean-Francois Caubet has signalled this week that if Renault’s competitors succeed in postponing the new rules, he fears the French carmaker’s commitment to F1 would be in doubt.

“We want to know what to do rather than delay or defer,” he is quoted by Autosprint’s auto.it.

“It seems to me that the situation is losing control. We understand and respect the ideas of Ferrari, Mercedes and Cosworth, but we are not willing to accept delays or to see things change in this way.

“The matter is becoming a problem,” insisted Caubet. “It is not clear who is managing the sport.”

Todt admitted last week that “those responsible at Renault tell me they will go out of F1″ if the engine rules do not come into effect in 2013.

Bahrain will not only controversially return to a reshuffled 2011 schedule, the island Kingdom will also kick off the 2012 season.
The news was confirmed in a media statement issued by the governing FIA after its Barcelona meeting on Friday.

The Paris-based body said the decision to reschedule Bahrain to October 30 this year “reflects the spirit of reconciliation” in the troubled Kingdom, following months of civil unrest.

“The World Motor Sport Council feels that reinstating the grand prix is a means of helping to unite people as the country looks to move forward”, the FIA added.

A new date for India has not yet been set, but the FIA hinted strongly that it will be in December, “combined with the FIA annual general assembly and prize-giving gala” in Delhi.

Ross Brawn said in Monaco that December is “totally unacceptable” to the teams, so well-known F1 photographer Darren Heath on Friday dared the teams’ group FOTA to show its mettle.

“The safety of everyone in F1 will surely be put at risk,” he wrote on Twitter.

FOTA responded by saying Friday’s decision will be “discussed internally” with a position to be announced later.

Also on Friday, Bahrain was announced as the season opener for the 2012 season, with the provisional calendar for next year featuring an unprecedented 21 grand prix dates.

Turkey in May, however, accompanies an asterisk warning it is “subject to confirmation”, while Texas is as expected paired with Canada in June.

The FIA also reinforced the 2013 engine rules featuring four-cylinder turbos, but said the “implentation date” could be reconsidered by fax vote “by June 30 latest”.

Next year, meanwhile, the cars’ nose tip height will be limited for T-bone style crashes, while the minimum weight will increase to 660kg.

Jean Todt on Sunday insisted F1 will not be repealing its four-cylinder engine rules for 2013.
Amid the powerful opposition of Bernie Ecclestone and Ferrari, the FIA president told reporters in Turkey that the regulations were rubber-stamped unanimously by the World Motor Sport Council.

F1 chief executive Ecclestone, however, has grave fears, admitting he is worried F1 could sound like the piddling GP3 cars if the sport follows through its ‘green’ agenda.

Todt said the only way the incoming rules could be scrapped is if “dramatic evidence” is brought forward at the next FIA meeting.

“At the moment there is no reason to reconsider it,” the Frenchman insisted.

Ecclestone meanwhile denied he is at loggerheads with Todt but issued a backhanded compliment when considering the FIA chief’s rise through the ranks from Peugeot in rallying to the top job at Ferrari.

“I was the one who took him out of Peugeot and put him in Ferrari,” said the Briton. “We have a very good relationship.”

Luca di Montezemolo has made clear his opposition to the 2013 engine rules.
With Bernie Ecclestone staunchly opposed to the end of the V8 era in exchange for small low-revving turbos, Williams chairman Adam Parr this week insisted that formula one must keep moving in the ‘greener’ direction.

“The (V8) technology is dated, it’s not what’s going on out in the real world and I think it’s a major, major barrier to bringing in new partners and growing the sport,” Parr told Reuters.

He sounded excited about the new direction for 2013, including much more powerful hybrid elements and the fact that the cars will run “on pure electric” when moving down the pitlane.

Parr also said Ferrari president Montezemolo was once in favour of the new rules, but the Italian is now fiercely on F1 chief executive Ecclestone’s side of the argument.

“We must not lose the DNA of formula one,” Italian Montezemolo told Auto Motor und Sport, scoffing at the fact F1 is moving to four-cylinders.

“What’s next is one cylinder — we’re not building motorcycles. The real challenge is to make an eight or 12-cylinder engine economical,” he added.

Niki Lauda has admitted he is concerned about F1′s switch to four cylinder engines.
Not keen on the newly announced turbo formula for 2013, Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo recently insisted that “for the top class of racing it sounds a bit pathetic”.

Triple world champion Lauda agrees: “I am worried about the sound, which in formula one has been so unique.

“Hopefully there will be more than a faint hum,” the Austrian told Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

Renault and Cosworth have written a letter to the FIA as F1 struggles to find agreement over a new engine formula for 2013.

The FIA is pushing hard for turbocharged 4 cylinder engines with exhaust-heat KERS capabilities to replace the current normally-aspirated V8s, and aiming to rubber-stamp the rules at the World Motor Sport Council in December.

Superficially, the engine makers support the sport’s ‘green’ direction but are concerned about initial costs and then a development arms race.

Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the Renault and Cosworth-powered teams last week signed a letter to the FIA pointing out the weaknesses of the proposed new rules.

They want tight limits on things including minimum weights for pistons and conrods and the entire engine unit.

“If the new engine formula becomes an arms race in turbochargers and cylinder heads, then an independent engine manufacturer will have no chance,” said Cosworth’s Mark Gallagher.

Renault team boss Eric Boullier said the French supplier will support new rules “within certain cost limits”.

“Our market in production cars is for four cylinders with a hybrid. For that reason we are not unhappy with that engine format (for F1).

“But it is about how the rules are defined. The less clear they are, the more expensive it becomes,” he insisted.

It is hoped that a cost-effective and modern engine formula might entice new suppliers, including the recently departed Honda and Toyota, into F1.

But Ross Brawn, still with contacts within Honda, said: “They’re not planning to return.”

Ferrari is not happy with F1′s reported plans for a four-cylinder, 1.6 litre turbocharged engine formula for the 2013 season and beyond.

It emerged this week that the broad outline of the sport’s future rules has been essentially decided and agreed by the majority of the teams.

According to Italy’s Autosprint, the famous Ferrari outfit is not among them.

Instead, the report said the Maranello based team wants formula one to revert to a 1.8 litre V6 engine design, which would be much easier to adapt from the current 2.4 litre V8s.

Ferrari’s engine boss Luca Marmorini reportedly insists there is not enough time to design a completely new engine for 2013 “with the necessary reliability to have only four units (per driver), as they would like”, he said.

Marmorini also argues that a 4-cylinder design would require a complete overhaul of the chassis designs.

Amid Ferrari’s staunch opposition last year to the proposed budget cap rules, the team threatened to quit formula one.

In a new interview with Corriere dello Sport, team boss Stefan Domenicali said anyone who thinks F1 would be the same without Ferrari “is wrong”.

He warned that, “depending on how the rules are configured”, Ferrari is open to seeking new challenges in “Le Mans or the major American championships”.

Apr.26 (GMM)  F1 teams are close to agreeing upon a new engine formula for the six-year period beginning in 2013.

Until then, development of the current 2.4 litre V8s will remain ‘frozen’, to be replaced thereafter by similarly powerful engines that use less fuel, emit less pollution and are affordable for the small teams.

Spain’s El Mundo Deportivo newspaper said an in-principle agreement has been reached for a four cylinder, 1.5 litre engine equipped with a twin-turbo and direct injection.

The new formula would reportedly also involve KERS.

“If F1 has to develop something helpful for real (road) driving conditions, then the best solution is for an engine that is turbocharged and GDI (gasoline direct injection,” Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa told Autocar magazine at the Beijing Motor Show.

“That is what we would support,” he said.

Mercedes’ Norbert Haug agrees that smaller engines are likely for reasons of consumption and emissions, but warns that high technology needs to remain a crucial focus.

“If you fly from Europe to Japan on a 747, you would use more fuel than an entire F1 season.  We need to see the whole picture,” he insisted.