The sport might now be called “formula engine”, at least in the early phase of 2014, according to Mercedes’ Niki Lauda.<\/p>\n
The German marque has got a jump on its rival suppliers Ferrari and Renault after the revolutionary switch from normally-aspirated engines to the significantly energy recovery-boosted turbo V6s.<\/p>\n
The milder tones of the engines got the thumbs-down from the Melbourne punters on Friday, who pined for the old days of earplugs over these ‘sewing machines on wheels’.<\/p>\n
Mercedes’ Toto Wolff is unapologetic.<\/p>\n
“This is modern technology, this is where road cars are going,” he said on Friday.\u00a0 “Downsizing is the motto and I think we just need to accept that the formula has changed.”<\/p>\n
It is not just the sport’s noise that has changed.\u00a0 Lauda said that even though the drivers are still in the spotlight, F1 is effectively now ‘formula engine’.<\/p>\n
“For the first five races we’re not going to see formula one, but a ‘formula engine’,” he told the Kleine Zeitung newspaper.<\/p>\n
“Only from the sixth, seventh race will the drivers again be driving (as before),” he explained.<\/p>\n
What he means is that the drivers are now operating very much under the control of the engineers, who are carefully monitoring fuel consumption levels and battery recharge rates.<\/p>\n
“You can’t overcharge them (the batteries), nor undercharge them,” Lauda said.\u00a0 “Not too slowly, not too fast.”<\/p>\n
And he said a big job-list in the practice sessions is not car setup, but careful calculations to determine how Sunday’s race can be run with just 100kg of fuel.<\/p>\n
“Without engineers there is no driving at the moment,” said Lauda.<\/p>\n
McLaren’s Jenson Button, the most experienced driver in the field who has raced throughout the transition from V10 to V8 and now V6, said: “You are more an engineer than a racer these days.<\/p>\n
“But this is reality,” he is quoted by the Times newspaper.<\/p>\n
“It’s not my favourite era and I’ve been worried that the racing will not be exciting, but we’re not going back to V10s,” said the 2009 world champion.<\/p>\n
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