MOTORSPORT: BMW says F1's V6 turbo hybrid tech is irrelevant

Mercedes-Benz retains its thirst for Formula 1 after six years of domination, but German rival BMW says F1's hybrid technology has absolutely no relevance for it.

BMW much prefers the Formula E electric open-wheeler series, in which it has the top team this season – in association with America's Andretti clan – as Mercedes and Porsche have arrived in it.

BMW i Andretti Motorsport has won two of the three FE races so far this season, although Mercedes' Stoffel Vandoorne leads the driver points on consistency and without a race victory.

BMW continues to participate in the Europe-wide German touring car championship (DTM), from which Mercedes withdrew after 2018, and global GT racing and has an interest in the hypercar plans for Le Mans, the World Endurance Championship and American endurance racing, especially if it is to involve hydrogen fuel-cells.

Audi has often been mooted as a potential entrant into F1, but it didn't want to know about it while Bernie Ecclestone was at the helm of Grand Prix racing.

Despite its massive success at Le Mans with hybrid technology earlier this century, Audi still shows no keenness for F1 three years after Ecclestone was dethroned by Liberty Media.

BMW too has sometimes been thought to be a potential fifth power unit supplier for F1, along with Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda.

The Munich-based manufacturer supplied the most powerful engine in F1 history, a turbocharged 1500cc in-line four-cylinder that powered an Ecclestone-owned Brabham car that took Brazilian Nelson Piquet to the second of his three world titles in 1983.

It later supplied naturally-aspirated V10s to the Williams team in the middle of the 'noughties' when Mark Webber was there and then took over Swiss team Sauber, with Polish driver Robert Kubica giving it its last GP victory in Canada in 2008 before the global financial crisis prompted BMW's withdrawal from F1 along with Toyota and, for several years, Honda.

BMW's motorsport chief Jens Marquardt has now reiterated, in no uncertain terms, that it has no intention of returning to F1 because F1's hybrid power units have no relevance to its road cars.

"The V6 turbo hybrid is an engine that has absolutely nothing to do with what we do in series production," Marquardt told German publication Auto Bild.

"From an engineering perspective I have to say 'hats off' what they do in Formula 1, but the technology has no relevance for the road."

However, in Stuggart – headquarters of Mercedes-Benz and its parent company Daimler AG – the love for F1 still burns bright as this year's cars are about to be released, testing starts next week and the season-opening GP is little more than a month away in Melbourne.

Although Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said late last year, as regulation tweaks for 2021 were being thrashed out, that the tri-star brand's endless participation was "not a given", Daimler chief executive Ola Kaellenius has said since that the sport remains excellent value for it.

"We have won the world championship six times in a row. That is unique and has more than paid off in marketing terms, so it has to be seen as a very worthwhile investment," Kaellenius said.

F1 sporting boss Ross Brawn has said that the sport will find it easier to deal with disputes over technical innovations by teams from next year.

Brawn says that, along with the revised regulations and new commercial agreement between Liberty Media and the teams, unanimous agreement will not be required among the teams if one comes up with an innovation exploiting a loophole in the rules.

"If you exploit a loophole in the future you can be shut down at the next race," Brawn said.

"If one team stands out with a solution that has never been conceived, and destroys the whole principle of what is trying to be done, the governance would allow to stop it [because the loophole could be closed by the vote of all other teams]."

Brawn admitted to some hypocrisy as his team – named Brawn after picking up the pieces from Honda's 2008 pullout – won the 2009 world championship with the controversial blown diffuser before it was onsold to Mercedes.

However, attempting to allay concerns that the new governance plan could stifle innovation, Brawn said: "We're not going to penalise someone who has a great idea."

His comments sound like a recipe for a whole lot more of F1's renowned infighting.

Meanwhile, Ferrari has done the first test of F1's 18-inch tyres – up from 13-inch – for 2021.

The Italian team's young star Charles Leclerc did 130 laps of Spain's Jerez circuit on the Pirelli tyres fitted to a modified version of one of last year's SF90 cars in which he won two GPs.

Ferrari and Pirelli agreed that no images be released from the test.

The 2021 tyres will be tested over 25 days this year by all 10 F1 teams.

All teams are constructing 'mules' for the testing and will do two days each of dry testing, while the three top teams – Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull – will share five days of wet testing, with the first of those at Ferrari's Fiorano track, which has had a 'sprinkler system' since the 1970s, on March 5.