F1 could move away from customer power units in 2031

The FIA, F1’s governing body, is considering offering a third-party supply of engines to customer teams from 2031 as the series looks set to move to cheaper V8 power units.

FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem and F1 chief Stefano Domenicali have long been aligned on the series moving to cheaper, lighter and louder power units for the next regulations cycle, which should start in 2031.

The most likely plan is to move to a naturally aspirated V8 engine with a smaller electric unit, which would bring down both the cost and the weight of the cars, and return F1 to a purer form of flat-out racing.

For Ben Sulayem, the move to engines that are much cheaper to produce and way less complex than the current machines could also open the door to solving another concern that has landed on his desk in recent months.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown recently sent a letter to Ben Sulayem to reiterate his long-standing concerns over team alliances in F1. Brown has had issues with some aspects of Red Bull Austria’s dual ownership of Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls, including team boss Laurent Mekies’ lack of gardening leave when the Frenchman traded the latter for the top job at Red Bull to replace Christian Horner.

The issue recently came up again when Mercedes showed interest in acquiring a 24% percent stake of the Alpine team, talks which fell through because Mercedes felt the asking price was too high. By introducing cheaper engines, the FIA could force teams to either build their own engine or acquire an off-the-shelf engine supply from a third-party, effectively ending the era of customer teams.

Speaking to British newspapers in Silverstone, Ben Sulayem said: “There will be no control over the teams, A-team over the B-team, that’s supplied with their engines,” as per Reuters.

“If it is affordable, then we will have one engine for the rest of the B-teams, so nobody can leverage them and tell them to ‘vote this way, or we are not going to give you a good engine’.”

Third-party engines used to be commonplace in F1, with the likes of Cosworth last supplying Marussia in 2013. But the advent of the turbo hybrid era in 2014 effectively ended third-party engines because of the cost and complexity involved.

Right now, Mercedes HPP is supplying three customers teams, McLaren, Williams and Alpine, with it understood that the manufacturer was already keen to go down from three to two customers for 2031. Red Bull Ford Powertrains is supplying both Red Bull Racing and its sister team Racing Bulls, while Ferrari is leasing power units to Haas and Cadillac. Audi is a bona fide works team, as is Aston Martin, which has forged an alliance with Honda. Cadillac is meanwhile preparing to enter as an engine builder in 2029 and is known to be keen on a V8 switch too.

Ben Sulayem claims some manufactures have already shown willingness to buy into their idea. But until the 2031 power unit regulations are well and truly defined and put on paper, there is nothing current or prospective manufacturers are able to do to prepare.

“Anytime a new regulation comes out, we’ll take a look and see if it’s something technically that’s interesting,” Brown said at the Monaco Grand Prix. “Is it something fiscally that makes sense? I think we’ll go through that process when that happens.”

While McLaren would at least consider the idea, it is understood not to be keen to set up an expensive power unit operation the way Red Bull has done.

Talks over the future power units has been delayed because of the ongoing work on the current regulations cycle, with both Red Bull’s ADUO review and the tweaks agreed for 2027 and 2028 having taken up the governing body’s resources in recent weeks.

The current Concorde and power unit agreements run until the end of the 2030 season, so the FIA could unilaterally decide to impose the new power unit formula, including a customer ban, from 2031 if it wanted too. But it would the run a huge risk alienating and driving away the OEMs it has tried so hard to attract in recent years, so it will likely try and find a broader consensus.

If a supermajority is found among the current six PUMs, which includes the current five engine builders as well as General Motors, the move to V8s could even be fast-tracked to 2030.

“In 2031, the V8, the FIA will have the power to do it, without any votes from the PUMs,” Sulayem said in May. “That’s the regulations. But we want to bring it one year earlier. I’m positive, they want it to happen.”

It is believed most manufacturers broadly agree with a move to V8s. Audi is keen to retain a turbocharger in the future regulations, although it is believed to stand alone on that position.

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– The Autosport.com Team