Teams speculate on Liberty's plans ahead of announcement

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Ahead of a big presentation from Formula 1's new owners Liberty Media about the future direction of the sport, teams have been busy wondering what the announcement will bring.

According to media reports, it will present its 2021 engine regulations on October 31. Until then no one is quite sure what Liberty has planned - but that doesn't stop the paddock from gossiping.

"For me personally, with a white sheet of paper I would have a twelve cylinder engine," Red Bull motorsport consultant Dr Helmut Marko told to Speed Week. "With the sound and the power that the fans want."

Marko is unlikely to get his wish. It's thought that Liberty will go for a midway approach consisting of a V6 engine, two turbochargers, and MGU-K and MGU-H technology.

That didn't go down well with four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel, however.

"Downsizing is the way the world has gone," Vettel admitted in an interview with Playboy magazine. "But with our focus on the sport and the show we would be better advised against this trend.

"These days the cars are no longer so loud," he complained. "I believe this is not only not good for the spectators, but for us drivers as well."

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More urgently, Marko wants to see more companies involved in the supply of power units to the Formula 1 team.

Red Bull has suffered from being unable to find an engine provider able to match the power and reliability of those made by Mercedes and Red Bull.

The team recently announced it was splitting with its current engine provider Renault after 2018. However it's unclear where else they can go to for 2019 engines. Currently the only alternative is Honda, which has its own problems at present.

"This current dependency is unacceptable to us," Marko stated. "We cannot get the engine power that Mercedes and Ferrari have."

And he added that the sport's focus on technology with its complex hybrid energy recovery systems risked alienating fans and marginalising the sport.

"Formula 1 must become consumer rather than technology-friendly," he insisted. "People buy the iPhone because it's easy to use,. Not because they want to know the technology inside it."

Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reports that Liberty intends the next generation of engines to be cheaper and simpler. They will probably consist of a range of standardised parts to cut costs and reduce complexity.

Liberty is also thought to be considering the introduction of a budget cap, to be brought in as early as 2019. The controversial F1 Commission and Strategy Group are also likely to be scrapped.

It will be the first big review of the sport's rules since Bernie Ecclestone was ousted as the sport's CEO.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.