F1 wants ‘powerful and emotive’ new engine era from 2025

Formula 1 has outlined its ambition to ensure its next generation of power units from 2025 will be “powerful and emotive”.

During Thursday’s meeting of the F1 Commission, the FIA, F1 and teams agreed a plan for the sport’s next power unit formula, which is set to come into effect for 2025 after teams unanimously voted for an engine freeze from the start of 2022.

A high-level working group has subsequently been established, featuring both current and potential power unit manufacturers and fuel suppliers to define the objectives of the next generation of F1 engines.

F1 said there is “strong alignment” on the overall goals, especially regarding the need to reduce cost and over an ambition to reach carbon neutrality.

The key objectives set out by the F1 Commission for the 2025 power unit are:

1) Environmental sustainability and social and automotive relevance
2) Fully sustainable fuel
3) Creating a powerful and emotive power unit
4) Significant cost reduction
5) Attractiveness to new power unit manufacturers

The championship has used 1.6 litre V6 power units since 2014 but the engines have regularly faced criticism for being too quiet, despite being incredibly efficient.

Teams are keen to lower costs and hope to reduce the complexity of the engine components.

F1 has not had a new power unit manufacturer join the championship since Honda’s return in 2015, though the Japanese manufacturer has since announced it will leave the sport at the end of the year.

The agreed engine freeze is good news for Red Bull and opens the door for the Milton Keynes squad to finalise a deal to take over the Honda engine project from next season and thus avoid the high costs of in-house development, something it made clear it did not have the resources for.