Hello, I am not sure if I'm allowed to start topics, so feel free to delete it if necessary!
Anyway this is an article I was referring to the other day. Those with fond memories of the 70s and 80s read on...
"Formula 1 bosses are pushing ahead with plans to change the rules to make cars more dramatic in the near future.
A series of proposals have been submitted by the rule-making Strategy Group for technical chiefs to consider and then report back on. These focus on making the cars and rear tyres wider, and making the engines more powerful.
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner are pushing for a return to the V8 naturally aspirated engines last used in 2013. All other teams are opposed to this, and want to stick with the new turbo hybrid engines, technology similar to that being pushed by road-car manufacturers.
F1 chiefs have set a target of 1,000bhp for the engines. The current engines already produce in the region of 840-880bhp, so the extra power could be achieved relatively easily and cheaply by increasing the revs used and adjusting the fuel-flow rate. This would also go some way to satisfying Ecclestone's desire for louder, more dramatic-sounding engines.
The date for the introduction of these rules has not yet been set. Some are pushing for 2016, but others feel that this could increase costs and risk damaging the 2015 season, since teams would freeze development to focus on their new designs. A more likely solution is that the changes will be introduced for 2017.
Cars will increase their width from 1,800mm to 2,000mm, the size they were in 1997. At the same time, front wings will be widened and rear wings made bigger. Rear tyres will be widened to increase mechanical grip, and the new tyre supplier for 2017 - when Pirelli's contract ends - will be decided by a tender process, with all interested manufacturers invited to apply and present ideas.
Teams have discussed increasing the size of the wheels from 13 inches to 18 or even 20 inches. But there has been no agreement on this so far"
Building the MP4/4!
US
