FIA president Jean Todt has finally admitted that engine costs in Formula 1 are far too high following the switch from V8 engines to hybrid turbo-V6 power units.
The Frenchman has remained relatively quiet on the matter, despite several of the smaller teams expressing great concern that the cost of being an engine customer is far too high.
Prior to the switch to the new power units, a team would be expected to pay around £4 million (€5.6m, $6.3m) annually for a years worth of engines, which equated to 16 units plus an additional eight for testing purposes between two cars.
Now teams are expected to pay around £15m (€21m, $23m) for just eight race engines and roughly six to eight test engines. That’s around £1m per engine, compared to £160,000 for a V8.
Todt is therefore looking to implement a cost cap to ensure customer teams are only paying a fair amount.
“I do agree that it’s too expensive,” he said. “Here, I take the responsibility of probably not having secured a maximum cost to the customers.
“It’s something we are going to address; it’s better late than never.”
The president wouldn’t elaborate on exactly how he planned to put a cost cap in place as many of the teams have already signed long-term deals which would tie them into an already agreed price for many years.
“We are going to discuss it,” he added. “I am a realist, so I want to make sure that what we do can be done.
“I need good advisors so that we can go through with the challenge.”
