Are rotary engines alowed in F1??

[scubywrxr]

Dont think a rotary would cut it at F1 performance levels even if they allowed any other engine besides the V10.. Mazda did pull a surprise out the bag at Lemans though... pity they have not had the opportunity to repeat that success.

[astonmartinandy]

What is the most powerful rotary engine that has ever been made then? Doesn't mazda own a patent on the design as well so that nobody else can copy it?

[deth]

^^ mazda didnt invent teh rotary engine...some guy named wankel did,, hence the hwankel engine, i suppose they could have bought the patent from him, but it likely would have expired by now

[Toronto]

isn't the rotary engine really old, and when he built it he was a like 20 or something, i am not 100% tho

[bmwfreak]

F1 has ceased to become a technology showcase anymore, but more of a circus sideshow. Witness Max Mosley in his attempts to improve the show. Or team bosses voting for that ridiculous ban on drivers who have prior GP experience (Wilson, Verstappen, etc) to conduct testing.

Where is the cutting edge now?

Mazda : why not ask the FIA for a try? see what you can come up with. Get an exemption. Surely not ALL FIA suits are bean counters and ringmasters? At least SOME might still be petrol heads?

[sentra_dude]

Originally Posted by he7luis F1 is at the peak of motoracing, in almost every part of a car. If we take the ceramic brakes for example, before they appear on every supercar at the moment they were used in F1. By imposing rules aren't FIA limiting the development of new technology?? Fossil fuel will finish, and should it be allowed a F1 team use for example a hidrogen engine if they think that would be competitive?? Should FIA impose some rules in terms of lets say weight of the engine, or can only consume a max of X amount of fuel??? What do you guys say??

I pretty sure ceramic brakes were never used in F1...only carbon discs with carbon brake pads; ceramic brakes are a pretty new development, newer than carbon brakes I believe, and ceramic brakes wouldn't cut it in F1.

You all seem to think that the FIA is trying to kill an innovation in F1, and to some extent you are right, but you must realize that innovation costs lots and lots of money...and F1 is already absurdly expensive. Many of the regulations the FIA has are not evil anti-tech rules, they are there to either slow the cars down or decrease costs. Even the large teams are getting a little squeamish about the costs, Ferrari spent in excess of $300 million last year, and to get any more edge they will have to spend even more next year. Then again some of the FIA rules are just plain stupid...

Originally Posted by bmwfreak F1 has ceased to become a technology showcase anymore, but more of a circus sideshow. Witness Max Mosley in his attempts to improve the show. Or team bosses voting for that ridiculous ban on drivers who have prior GP experience (Wilson, Verstappen, etc) to conduct testing. Where is the cutting edge now? Mazda : why not ask the FIA for a try? see what you can come up with. Get an exemption. Surely not ALL FIA suits are bean counters and ringmasters? At least SOME might still be petrol heads?

I think F1 is still a tech showcase...the teams are still throwing way more money around in R&D than any other motoracing series...and they are still pushing the limits of automotive tech. Where else do they have pneumatic value closure, 18,000+rpm, 300hp/L, and aerodynamics that more advanced than some airplanes...

[dylan99]

Formula One is still and will always be tech showcase you should have seen a documentary on F1 at the Discovery Channel it was very good they spoke about technology drivers etc.

[he7lius]

Formula One is still and will always be tech showcase you should have seen a documentary on F1 at the Discovery Channel it was very good they spoke about technology drivers etc.

Does anyone have the video??

[eCartman]

Ford is a major shareholder of Mazda and they probably don't see any need to push Mazda in F1.

Ford is behind Jaugar's F1 effort already so they won't make more money available to fund more F1 team. Besides, for the last few years Jaugar has been running with less and less money from Ford already.

Mazda themselves isn't interested in getting into F1, they're too small a company to make it work. They'll just spend their own money on Research and hope we can see a true successor to the RX-7...

[eCartman]

F1 is at the peak of motoracing, in almost every part of a car. If we take the ceramic brakes for example, before they appear on every supercar at the moment they were used in F1. By imposing rules aren't FIA limiting the development of new technology?? Fossil fuel will finish, and should it be allowed a F1 team use for example a hidrogen engine if they think that would be competitive?? Should FIA impose some rules in terms of lets say weight of the engine, or can only consume a max of X amount of fuel??? What do you guys say??

Actually teams are not happy because some of these rules are too vague and needs clarification. They think existing rules can still gives them enough freedom to design their cars with tons of room for improvement. What they want are rules that are clear and precise so that there's less mis-interpretation. What happened was some teams spend so much money on one technology only to find out they were banned after 2-3 races.

They don't mind having more rules as long as it makes sense. Also some of these rules allow tons of room for them to move around. Current engine rules are pretty open-ended, there's tons of innovation still out there waiting to be discovered.

[ravenpaua]

Originally Posted by toronto isn't the rotary engine really old, and when he built it he was a like 20 or something, i am not 100% tho

The Wankel engine was patented in 1936 by Felix Wankel, but the "real" rotary engine was made by NSU in 1959.

[kteo2003]

rotary engine was an idea of mr wankel...he made the rotary engine at 1864....F1 has changed...at first they said that they had to make the "cars"more safety for the pilots-result:totaly lack of entertaintment with passes.....try to see motogp...now they say that they have to make new rules so that teams with lower budget than ferrari mclaren etc partecipate F1....
but what they finaly did is to destroy F1 to please these guys that give the money to FIA to the teams....
it would be very interesting to see how rotary engine would go at F1......if for a city car they can make a wankel 1300cc with 231bhp for F1with 3000cc what could they do?????

[kteo2003]

sorry i wrote 1846 but i meant 1964...

[t-maxx]

i would like to see turbo cars back in f1.

[kteo2003]

and i would like to see slicks but......