Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsRed Bull Racing

Prospect of 1000bhp F1 car 'eye-watering'

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Christian Horner has described the prospect of a 1000bhp F1 car in the future as “eye-watering”.

Niki Lauda has been outspoken on the need for Formula One to be more spectacular in order to retain its fan base, with new Ferrari team principal Maurizio Arrivabene fearing many fans have already been lost as a result of the current regulations.

“I think it’s fantastic to be contemplating 1000 horsepower cars,” Horner said. “I think the chassis we need some change on as well. We want to make the cars harder to drive, more spectacular and the prospect of a 1000 horsepower grand prix car is eye-watering.

“What we do need to be responsible with is on the cost because the burden of cost on the manufacturers is already enormous under the current engine rules. I think what we need to be very careful with is whatever rules are agreed going forward take in to consideration that fact.

“Maybe there’s elements of the engine that can be standardised. We run a common ECU for example that McLaren supply, why not look at other elements that we can take dramatic costs out but still leave the engine open to development for each of the manufacturers.

“I think we need to some really responsible discussions about that area. It’s very easy to sit here and say ‘Yeah, we want 1000 horsepower', but is that going to cost £20million, £40million more per manufacturer? The two have to go hand in hand.”

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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.