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Brown: Supercars V6 engine plan a mistake, Triple Eight deal unfair

McLaren executive director Zak Brown says the introduction of twin-turbo V6 engines to Supercars - in which he co-owns a team - is a mistake

Factory Holden squad Triple Eight's twin-turbo V6 engine will appear in a wildcard entry later this year, ahead of a wider roll-out to Holden teams in 2019.

The move comes as part of the Gen2 regulations, introduced last year to try to entice new manufacturers by allowing two-door bodyshapes and four and six cylinder engines.

Holden has been first to make use of the new regs, with the hatchback ZB Commodore that debuted this year, and the V6 engine in development.

But Walkinshaw Andretti United Holden team co-owner Brown says the series risks spoiling the "perfect" racing seen in last weekend's Melbourne F1 support round.

"Technically I think it would be a mistake to go to this talked-about V6 engine," he said.

"Why change to a technology that's going to cost more money? As soon as you have more money being spent that's going to broaden the gap between the haves and the have-nots, so I think you want some stability.

"Maybe some hybrid in the future would be a good technical relevance, but I have this debate in Formula 1 all the time - it's less about what's under the bonnet, as in the car on the street, it's about training the engineers, it's about racing, it's about being competitive, it's about understanding technology to how to apply them to a road car as opposed to it being 'we're going to take that engine out of that car and we're going to drop it into another'.

"They need to tread carefully. It's a sport and entertainment, and somewhere where Formula 1 has gone wrong and needs to fix itself."

Brown also hit out at make-up of Triple Eight's factory Holden deal.

Triple Eight undertook all of the development and manufacturing of the new ZB Commodore, before then selling parts to the other Holden squads.

It is also leading the development of the V6 engine with its partner KRE and GM in the US.

"I don't think it's fair," Brown said.

"I think it gives Triple Eight a unfair advantage because they ultimately get to develop the parts, see the parts, test the parts, learn the information, and then they actually learn from the teams because when we get the parts and have issues we need to go and share with them what our challenges are.

"But that information doesn't come back our way.

"When manufacturers come into the sport, if they're just with a team that's fine, but if they're then going to supply other teams in the racing series I don't think you should do that through a factory team.

"I see that in all different forms of motorsport, so I think they need to fix that because I don't think that's right."

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