'Too early' to talk about return of V10s – Vasseur

Feb.28 (GMM) It’s “too early” to get excited about the scream of naturally-aspirated V10 engines returning to Formula 1.

That is the view of Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur, with both F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem seemingly united over the popular prospect of the end of the current ‘hybrid’ era.

F1 raced away from loud, un-turbocharged engines at the end of 2013, with the current ‘power units’ to become even more reliant on heavy, quieter electrical power from 2026.

Even though Red Bull is investing heavily with Ford to produce its very own ‘power unit’ from next year, team boss Christian Horner likes the sound of returning to V10s for the next regulations cycle.

“The pure racing fan in me would love to see a return to V10 engines, if it were done responsibly and with sustainable fuel,” he said.

However, Horner’s counterpart at Ferrari isn’t ready to predict what kind of engine – producing what amount of decibels – will be powering the cars from 2030 or 2031.

“It is still too early to talk about what engine regulations we will have from 2031,” said Vasseur. “We have not yet introduced the next generation of engines and there are still some huge issues on the table in this regard. We should focus on that first.

“I am sure that discussions about the future will come, but for now we should focus on the next step in engine development.”