Current Status of F1 Power Units
F1’s only independent engine supplier Honda, is set to leave Formula 1 after the 2021 season ends. The reason is mainly to focus on sustainable road technology. This will leave only manufacturing teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, and Alpine (Renault) setting the pace for the rest of the grid.
All customer teams are at the mercy of manufacturer teams when it comes to performance. It is evident that power units have a huge percentage in terms of performance. It can make or break a season, especially for teams like McLaren or Red Bull, which have very competitive aero packages. We have all seen McLaren struggle with the Honda power unit, transition to better seasons with Renault, but ultimately have good performance with the shift to Mercedes power units in 2021.
Red Bull had pace issues due to the underpowered Renault power unit starting the hybrid era, but this year it seems that Honda finally found a way to have a solid one, even up to par with Mercedes’ one. Ferrari has been a hit or miss over the years, and the recent controversies regarding their PU’s legality in 2019 have made them seek a more conservative approach in development.
Manufacturer teams benefit monetarily by supplying their PUs to their customers. This translates to more budget for R&D.
A One-Man Club
Formula One’s hybrid era has been dominated entirely by Mercedes. Since its shift in 2014, Mercedes has won all Constructors’ Championships and Sir Lewis Hamilton has been champion with them six out of seven times; Rosberg, also for Mercedes, won one.
Teams like Williams, and Force India/Racing Point (now Aston Martin) became customers for Mercedes, and we expected them to be competitive. It has been a matter of resources on why Williams has struggled to produce a competitive car. Racing Point has had some amazing results recently, despite the “Pink Mercedes” controversy. It is evident that the resources or development technology these teams have is not up to par with manufacturer teams, this translates to a more regulation-sensitive car; in other words, a change in regulations can be a huge setback for them. They are fighting two fronts: PU performance dependency, and regulation changes.
Ferrari has been a hit or miss. It is a mixture of PU performance, and design philosophy. They are the team that spends the most in these areas, yet they have not produced a car that can fight in the long run with Mercedes. Their customers Haas, and Alfa Romeo have had ups and downs over the years. Recently it seems that Alfa Romeo has found some improvements since Kimi Raikkonen arrived. On the other hand, Haas F1 has been on a downwards spiral due to on and off the grid issues. They are the smallest team by far in F1 in terms of staff and resources.
Renault on the other hand has opted for a more conservative approach for their PU, betting more on reliability than on sheer power. This was one of the reasons they lost Red Bull as a customer, Red Bull had little to no say in R&D for the PU. Team principal Christian Horner intuited that Renault was starting to see them more as competitors rather than a customer team. So evidently Renault prioritized their team over Red Bull. This resulted in a shift from Renault to Honda PU.
Red Bull: A Hybrid Team?
Red Bull started the hybrid era with Renault, and later they made Tag Heuer a partner that helped them in this front to get a bit more of performance to their PU. After deciding not to renew their contract with Renault, they shifted to Honda as their supplier. Honda was limping a bit in F1 due to the bad seasons with McLaren, their former partner. Reliability and performance were the main issues the Japanese powerhouse had. In Red Bull and Toro Rosso (Alpha Tauri) they found great partners. Red Bull worked closely on improving the PU and gathered significant data in this front.
Honda changed their hermetic approach and became more open to sharing data and feedback when developing the PU. 2021 seems to be the year they finally get it, in terms of power and reliability. They finally got their “size zero” philosophy that they failed to get with McLaren. Despite leaving in 2022, Honda sold their intellectual property to Red Bull. The Austrian team will develop the power unit further, keeping the general philosophy in mind.
Red Bull has the manpower and resources to help develop a supplier-only engine. This is not possible for smaller, less capable teams, so the idea of having one or more supplier-only engines is not 100% ideal. For example, McLaren had to redesign the rear of their car to fit their new Mercedes PU, the transition from Renault has not been smooth. They spent most of their tokens in this area.
The Issue with Engine Manufacturers
One can only imagine if 2 or more engine suppliers like Honda were on F1, they would have to commit to one team and assume that the learning curve might take years, especially in today’s cost reducing F1 with so little time for actual tests. This has been a critical issue in the last few years. Teams have been working too much on simulations rather than actually testing their cars. Even wind tunnel tests have been reduced due to the high energy demand these have.
The F1 regulator body could make an exception and give engine manufacturers plenty of test sessions on older chassis to sort out issues like brake horse power and reliability. Of course, Ferrari and Mercedes would be out of the equation. This could attract manufacturers like BMW, Audi, Aston Martin, Ford, Toyota, and Cosworth to fabricate prototypes and start test sessions. If they deem their power units good enough, they could propose supplying these to customer teams who usually receive hand-me-down versions of the manufacturer teams' PUs.
2024 will be a big change in F1, power units will be unfrozen, and big changes are on the horizon. Red Bull has until then to seek a solution since they acquired the intellectual property from Honda. Manufacturers like Mercedes and Ferrari do not want to have Red Bull as a customer because they see them as a direct competitor.
The current state of how power units are distributed is not ideal but it seems like the most cost friendly and feasible solution. Certainly, we would like to have more variety for customer teams, but Formula One seems to be heading into a cost-friendly road.
What are your thoughts on the status of PUs? Should Honda have stayed longer in F1?
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