Irvine Happy to Drop Speeds

Jaguar's Eddie Irvine believes reducing engine power could be the best way to kerb the rising speeds in Formula One.

The Australian Grand Prix saw the times tumble by almost four seconds per lap in qualifying and the FIA is concerned that Formula One's new tyre war has made the cars too fast.

One suggested way to slow them is to reduce the power of the engines, and a change from 3-litre V10 to 2.5-litre V6 powerplants has been suggested.

Irvine believes this could be the answer. "A V6 would slow speeds quite a lot and I don't think that would hurt Formula One," said Irvine, in The Guardian newspaper.

"The noise would be fantastic because the engines would run to 20,000 rpm," continued the Ulsterman. "People want to hear that sort of thing.

"They don't really notice out-and-out speeds as such, they just want noise and want to believe they are watching the fastest formula."

An engine design change, however, would be neither easy nor rapid. Engine designs were fixed as 3-litre V10s until 2007 and a change would only be possible if all teams agreed.