Smaller F1 engines to benefit road users

The new generation of 1.6-litre turbo hybrid engines set to power F1 race cars from 2014 will deliver greater benefits to everyday road users, says Renault Track Operations Manager, Remy Taffin.

Taffin, the man in charge of making sure Renault's F1 engines do what they're supposed to, says the smaller, more efficient RS34 V6 turbocharged engines that will replace the RS27 V8s for the 2014 F1 GP season, will provide greater benefits to production car powertrains as they deliver a "40% reduction in fuel consumption".

"We obviously try to get into the way that the car industry has gone to reduce fuel consumption because there is not many ways to do that these days," he explains. "So we downsize the engine, we're going to use a turbocharger and use an energy recovery system.

"It's very similar to what we're building in the car industry."

Another facet of the 2014 F1 engine that will have a trickle-down effect on production cars is the implementation of an electric motor to impel the turbocharger/turbine at low engine revs, effectively eliminating turbo lag.

Hot tuners like Opel's OPC subsidiary are already considering similar technology for new generation hot hatches and Audi has already built prototypes - which we've driven - like the A6 electric turbo.

The main hurdle car makers face is the significant electric power needed to spin a turbo charger.

Taffin says the new generation V6 turbo powerplants coming to F1 are more reliable too. And they'll need to be: 2014 rules stipulate only five engines per driver, down from eight, but he doesn't see this as an issue.

"We've multiplied by 10 the amount of kilometres these engines can do," he says, also stating they should be good for 3000km, compared to 350km per engine in 2004.

Renault has around 300 people working on Renault's 2014 F1 engine in Viry, France. Despite being heavier (155kg vs 95kg) by virtue of larger batteries, much work is being done to make the engine more reliable and more fuel efficient, in step with the production car world's stricter emissions laws and customer demand.

As well as a drop in capacity, the upcoming F1 engines will have a distinctive new acoustic.

"It sounds different because you have this big turbo running on the V6 and this one is going to be running at 100,000 revs," says Taffin.

They will be loud, but the days of screaming, ear drum-rupturing F1 cars are numbered. "It won't be high-pitched," he says.

Maximum turbo boost is around 3.0 bar, or three times regular atmospheric pressure (43.5 psi in the old money). Unlike the current V8s that do their best work around 18,000rpm, Renault's 2014 F1 engine will peak at around 10,500rpm, with gear changes occurring at 12,000rpm.

Though exact power numbers are being kept secret for now, Taffin reckons it will have similar output to the current F1 engine of around 550kW (750hp) - not bad for a 1.6-litre engine. By comparison, Renault's most powerful 1.6-litre turbo-petrol production engine, in the Clio RS 200, generates 147kW.

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