F1: Teams Close To Agreeing To New 2013 Engine Formula, New Chassis Confirmed For Schumacher

F1 teams are close to agreeing upon a new engine formula for the six-year period beginning 2013.

Until then, development of the current 2.4 litre V8s will remain 'frozen', to be replaced thereafter by engines of similar power but that will use less fuel, emit less pollution and are affordable for the smaller teams.

Spain's El Mundo Deportivo newspaper said an in-principle agreement has been reached for a four cylinder, 1.5 litre engine equipped with a twin-turbo and direct injection.

The new formula would reportedly also involve KERS.

"If F1 has to develop something helpful for real (road) driving conditions, then the best solution is for an engine that is turbocharged and GDI (gasoline direct injection," Ferrari CEO Amedeo Felisa told Autocar magazine at the Beijing Motor Show.

"That is what we would support," he said.

Mercedes' Norbert Haug agrees that smaller engines are likely for reasons of consumption and emissions, but warns that high technology needs to remain a crucial focus.

"If you fly from Europe to Japan on a 747, you would use more fuel than an entire F1 season. We need to see the whole picture," he insisted.

(GMM)

New Chassis Confirmed For Schumacher

Team boss Ross Brawn has confirmed that Michael Schumacher will race a different Mercedes chassis at next weekend's Spanish Grand Prix.

We reported after the recent Chinese Grand Prix that not only will the seven-time world champion have a new development package at Barcelona featuring a longer wheelbase, the physical chassis will also be completely new.

The 41-year-old struggled significantly in Shanghai, and Mercedes' Norbert Haug acknowledged that his actual chassis may have been damaged throughout the first four races of 2010.

"It's not a new chassis per se, it's a chassis we used in testing," Brawn confirmed on Monday, at a fundraising event for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution on the banks of the River Thames.

"The one he had got damaged during the first few races and we repaired it as best we could at the races.

"But now we are back at base we are going to reintroduce the test chassis and he will be using that in Barcelona," he is quoted as saying by The Guardian (which the German news agency SID also reported on Monday).