Lowe calls for long-term view on engine development

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Mercedes' executive technical director Paddy Lowe has spoken out about the need for longer-term planning when it comes to engine regulations.

Teams are currently at full stretch developing cars for the 2017 season which sees a major overhaul of Formula One's technical specifications. However, the current engine regulations are also set to expire in 2020 and Lowe has warned that the sport needs to start taking a longer-term view of the bigger issues.

"I think it is about time we started to talk about the engine beyond this one or power unit, really," he said.

"It does raise some very big considerations: how do we define an engine or power unit that is correct for the sport but also relevant to the kind of power units that we will see in the future in road cars? Do we make remain in some way related attached to that technology which is increasingly electrical or do we go our own way?

"There are some very very important questions there. That debate started really with the issue of the sound of these engines when they arrived in 2014. It’s better now than it was back then but it doesn’t match the sound of the old V8s or the V10s but it still raises an interesting debate.

"I think road cars of the future, at some point not that far off, will be completely silent if they are all electrical so will we want noise, will we associate noise with performance or not?

"There are some very interesting debates there and I think we need to start that process."

The debate will extend further than just the engines themselves. Increased power means faster speeds which in turn impact the performance of the tyres and associated safety regulations.

"I think we are in a bit of a unique situation where the cars get quicker by regulation," acknowledged Lowe. "We’ve never done that before.

"What it’s demanded is a greater level of dialogue than we’ve had before between the teams and Pirelli and the FIA to make sure that our predictions are constantly provided, regularly updated to Pirelli, so that they will be working towards the level of performance that we are developing in the cars.

"If that process works I think it should be fine."

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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.