Horner Denies Red Bull's Push for V10 Return
Apr.1 - Christian Horner has denied it is Red Bull that is pushing hardest for the return of V10 engines in Formula 1.
Pat Symonds, an engineering stalwart of the sport, now consults for the all-new Cadillac team - who he says may not even have a car to run at all if the scheduled 2026 rule changes do not fire up from next year.
"Audi can't do it," he is quoted as saying by France's Auto Hebdo, referring to the fact that Sauber will become the full Audi team from 2026 with a brand new engine.
"We (Cadillac) designed a car for a 2026 Ferrari engine. We suspect that a 2025 Ferrari engine would not fit in the car," Symonds added, dismissing the entire concept of calling off the 2026 rules as "wishful thinking".
One theory is that Red Bull is powering the V10s running on 100 percent sustainable fuel idea, amid rumours the team is concerned its new Ford-backed Red Bull Powertrains project will be significantly outpaced.
Team boss Horner denies it.
"We now have our own engine department and are running our engines on the test benches," he said. "I think all the teams are fully focused on 2026 at the moment.
"There has been some speculation that we are pushing for a delay, but that is absolutely not the case. We are prepared and ready for 2026. That is our plan."
Horner even agrees with Symonds' line of thinking that the discussions taking place behind the scenes are essentially wishful thinking.
"I would be very surprised," he said when asked if he expects a sudden regulations U-turn. "It's very late in the process. There is a governance structure, there is a process, there are rules in place."
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Both Symonds & Horner are spot-on.
F1 powertrains are a great piece of engineering, but simply too complicated for sudden late changes with short lead times to be viable, especially given all the investment, time, & effort into these things.
There was an exemption for teams in 2014 to run a non hybrid engine, so stranger things have happened
I never knew, but in any case, everyone still used the same 1.6L V6 turbo hybrid concept that has been in use ever since that year, so ultimately irrelevant.
incorrect info it was 2006 torro rosso running detuned v10 engines , however it is a precident where rules can be altered if "The will" is there
No wonder I struggled to recall such an exception because the first hybrid era season didn't have one in the first place.
However, while a precedent may exist, such a thing happening again is still highly unlikely in the modern era, especially because Toro Rosso using a detuned V10 in the first V8 season was clearly meant as a one-off thing.
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