FIA President Jean Todt says retaining the current four engine manufacturers is his priority over trying to entice a new entrant in 2021.
Formula 1 is set for an update of its regulations when the next cycle begins from 2021, with cheaper, simpler and louder engines set to be introduced, albeit a diluted version of the initial proposals.
Long-term engine suppliers Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault were joined by Honda in 2015, a year after the championship introduced 1.6 litre V6 turbos.
Several manufacturers reportedly tracked potential 2021 developments and were involved in discussions, though no new entrant has signalled its intention to join.
Todt believes this development means his and the FIA’s priority should be to ensure that the current participants sign up for the next cycle of regulations.
“Me personally, I was always pessimistic to the fact that with specific rules for Formula 1, we could have more than four manufacturers,” said Todt during the Italian Grand Prix weekend.
“Personally, I feel it’s really a great achievement to have four different powertrains for 10 teams, because it means 2.5 [engine suppliers] per team.
“I would say my priority is to make sure that we keep those four.”
Todt believes that any idea to radically restructure the current engine regulations in an attempt to entice potential new parties would have sent out the wrong message.
“I always said it would be very unfair to the four engaged to say ‘OK, we want to attract a new one, so let’s change everything’. So what about them? About all the investments they’ve been doing for years, and change completely the regulations because we may have one or two coming?,” he added.
“So that was one of the reasons why it was not a revolution on the engine regulations.
“Now if we can secure those four, for me, that would be a great achievement.
“There was some demonstration of interest from one, who said to us we are not in a situation for ’21, but what is very important for us is to know exactly what will be the regulations, because there could be a strong interest in the future.”
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