F1 with turbos: Tell Me I'm Wrong

Against all the detractors, Chris is eagerly awaiting the 2014 F1 season. A foolish decision?

The cars will be ugly, the V6s will sound rubbish and the turbochargers will wheeze around circuits slower than the 2013 cars. Most people seem to think that new-F1 will be terrible.

I haven't looked forward to a season as much for years.

Old turbo cars even broke spectacularly!

The sport badly needed a shake-up, or what should correctly be termed de-Neweying, because Red Bull's dominance has become tedious and profoundly damaging to the sport. A complete re-think of the technical regulations was therefore necessary.

As was a re-focusing of F1's relevance to those who spend money competing in it - the car manufacturers that Bernie and Max always said couldn't and shouldn't be relied on to keep things going. But without whom F1 would be a shambles.

If there is no technical link, no marketing message that can be spun, then F1 is moribund - so turbocharging wasn't just a good idea, it was the only idea. Because apparently everything needs to be turbocharged from this day forward. Except the Lexus RC F. Anyways, we get a 1.6 litre turbo V6 and a 15,000rpm rev limit. Here's what they sound like on a dyno.

2013 wasn't a great season; how about 2014?

And for reference, here's how a turbo V6 sounded back in the day. Do you think it has enough torque?

Have you watched any F1 from the first turbo era lately? It was pretty damn exciting. How much of this can be attributed to the experimental nature of the engine work back then is probably debatable - most drivers in qualifying spec seemed only to be vaguely in control of their machines - but there's no doubt that driving these new cars will present more of a challenge than last year's normally aspirated cars.

The level of choreographed technology is a worry: push-to-pass alongside DRS and other fakery detracts from the purity of the racing. And all this managing 100kg of fuel for a 300km race distance is potentially bad - as is anything which requires 'managing' in F1, except perhaps the driver's ego.

And what does this season hold for Seb?

But the thought of Lewis wrestling 700 turbocharged horsepower in the wet, with no traction control, gets me positively agitated. As does the suspicion that for once F1 won't simply be an aero and tyre formula. Lord knows what Pirelli will come up with on the compound front, but if matters were contentious with last year's torque figures, 2014 could see Paul Hembrey requiring several body guards.

Or they just chuck each team a set of Woo Sun Dark Horse Ditch Finders and tell them to get the bugger sideways, Gilles-style. Suppose we can only hope.

It really would be a shame, and a missed opportunity if the rubber couldn't withstand some slip angle though. I've had enough of listening to drivers moaning about not being able to push.

Monkey says V6 turbos are good news; is he right?

So we have a greater challenge for the driver, a welcome diminution of downforce's role, the prospect of the established hierarchy of performance among the teams being re-cast and no doubt a few mechanical failures thrown in for good measure too.

It has the makings of a classic - albeit one that could well spawn a runaway winner who leaves a good deal of scrapping for the remaining spoils.

There is however the outside possibility that my hopes are misguided, and that Formula 1 is about to suffer a forced-fed disaster.

Please tell me if I'm wrong.

[F1 pics: LAT]

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