Ferrari supports engine regs

While Honda, BMW and Mercedes all wanted more technical freedom, as did Toyota, it has not come as a great surprise that Ferrari is in favour of keeping a lid on engine development costs, given that it while it has previously had the biggest budget, that is not a situation likely to continue. One engine boss also quietly pointed out that the stipulations relating to cylinder bore diameter and crankshaft height, just happens to be what Ferrari runs at present.

Ferrari technical director Ross Brawn said: "I'm totally supportive and I believe that it will reduce the cost imbalance in the regulations. The technical regulations have hitherto consisted of around 40 pages, of which one was about engines and the other 39 about the car. Now we are starting to place restrictions on the engine but there will still be plenty of potential for people to create discriminating technologies between cars and engines."

Many would take issue with that, however, certainly with regard to the engine rules, which have been designed to ensure that a commercial supplier can produce a unit that is very close in performance to the efforts of the major manufacturers.

Honda has already made its feeling clear, while Toyota's Mike Gascoyne said: "Toyota has always supported 2.4-litre V8s but also wanted freedom of engine regulations. It's one of the reasons that we are in F1, so we are disappointed at that aspect."