siko

Engine freeze agreement in place
New regulations compromise reached

Over the weekend of the US GP a viable agreement has been met that should see an end to the ongoing ‘war’ that has raged between the teams and the FIA over the proposed ‘engine freeze’ regulations.

Despite a letter from FIA President Max Mosley, went to the teams late last week, insisting there would be no negotiation with regard to the draft rules, it appears that unanimous approval has been met, at least verbally, with respect of a new proposal known as the ‘Indianapolis Agreement’.

The new proposals will see the rules stipulating a ‘partial freeze’ on engine development, believed to include the freezing of the actual block, with certain areas receiving development in given time scales; it is believed, also, that the teams wish this to begin in 2007, thus rendering an expensive year of development before the original start date unnecessary.

According to reports Bernie Ecclestone had been attempting to secure the signatures of all teams before the close of play on Sunday, but a report on Autosport.com explains that Ferrari and Red Bull have yet to sign.

The report goes on to say that Ferrari wish to examine specific details, while Red Bull want to examine the impact of the proposals for independent teams such as themselves.

Jean Todt, Ferrari team chief, is quoted thus:

"There were a few meetings over the weekend to try to find an agreement for the engine in order to try to find a common agreement and to introduce that without conflict for 2007, so Ferrari was available for that as long as the cost would not be over the cost from what we called the Maranello proposal.

"Now my people will have a very cautious look to this proposal. We should be close to the one we suggested after the Maranello meeting and if we feel that it does reach our expectation, we don't have any problem to sign it.

"So we will see and if we feel that some modifications have to be suggested, we will suggest them and hopefully our colleagues will agree on them."

A meeting of the Formula One Commission on Wednesday is where the proposal will be presented officially, and the expectation is that the remaining signatures should be secured by then.

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Carbon

I guess Max Mosley thought he'd retain a lot more power and an almost dictatorial position by compromising rather than getting sued and beaten by the car makers and having the entire FIA and sport discredited. I'm sure neither would want to spend the time and money fighting a case like that anyway.

siko

The problem with this is that we will see less technological advances that eventually trickle down out road cars...

Carbon

Max argues that few innovations in F1 engines are applied to anything on the road. I personally have no idea how F1 influences roadcars in this modern day.

Sunny

It takes time but it does happen. From disk brakes to ABS to traction control to adjustable suspension to F1 transmission to AWD all came from racing. Usually they percolate to exotics like Enzo, Carerra GT etc before makeing it to lesser cars. The irony is that these innovations usually get banned from F1.

Imhotep Evil

Don't forget about spoilers, mid-engine configuration and so on.

Carbon

I know in the past things like that have trickled down but I don't know how much it happens currently. A lot of things we have on road cars these days are banned in F1 like variable valve timing and variable trumpet intake and exhaust systems.