Wolff: 'Wrong strategy for F1 to crawl back to V8 engines'

Toto Wolff believes F1's future engine platform can deliver excitement and thrills without reverting to past V8 architecture.

F1 working groups headed by sporting boss Ross Brawn continue to work to define the sport's future engine platform.

The direction currently considered is a V6 twin-turbo platform incorporating limited hybrid technology, a plan destined to simplify access to F1 for independent manufacturers while also beefing up power and noise, for the pleasure of the fans.

Mercedes boss Toro Wolff believes preliminary discussions have led to a basic foundation from which the final engine specs will be derived. 

"I strongly believe that F1 stands for high technology and innovation, performance," says Wolff.

"If you try to crawl back in time to the famous 80’s and 90’s, just because you liked it so much, it is the wrong strategy. 

"The discussions we are having are really good in so far as we see what we want to keep from the current regulations."

Preserving an element of hybrid technology in the future caters to the FIA's requirement that F1 retain a minimum link with road car relevancy.

But Wolff insists the criteria currently under consideration can result in a good compromise between what the manufacturers would like and what the fans are demanding.

"There has been scope for various pillars that the new engine needs to have: cost of development needs to be under control, it needs to be high-tech, it needs to be hybrid, power-to-weight ratio needs to be better than it is now, and now we need to look at the quality of sound," Wolff explained.

"We are looking at the variables of how we can achieve that, and in so far as everybody has been pretty much on the same path, I believe by the end of the year we can come to a close and say this is what we want to do in 2021."

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