F1 engines: May the force be with them

Last week's column - on progress made by Magneti-Marelli over 2014 energy-recovery systems - ended with the sentence: "Yes, [the team principals] did express reservations about the cost of the new power units - and these will certainly be more expensive than the antiquated V8s, whose roots stretch back to the past millennium, but that is a story for another day."

No sooner had that sentence been published than the 'day' arrived, with the main non-sporting discussion in the Montreal paddock being just that: the cost to teams of the 2014 V6 turbocharged units. The matter is of considerable concern to the independents, most of whom have managed to survive recent times thanks to bargain-basement - if such a term can be applied to a commodity currently coming in at around £7m per annum for a two-car-team supply - pricing levels on customer engines.