‘I’m happy to call time on combustion engine R&D’
‘Yeah, we’ve stopped working on this year’s car to concentrate on next year,’ announces the Mercedes-AMG F1 team each summer. How smug can you get? It reminds me of exams. You’d be about 45 minutes into an A-level history paper and the Simon Schama of the class would, with undisguised glee, stick his hand (yep, all boys – what a waste) in the air and ask the nearest invigilator for more paper, so that he might be able to fully commit to paper the considerable genius currently stuck infuriatingly – for him and for mankind generally – somewhere between brain and Biro.
When you’ve all but won both titles, driver and constructor, before most people have had their summer holiday, there is of course logic in switching your R&D efforts to the following year’s car. I just struggle to see what purpose such an admission might serve beyond crushing the competition’s morale. I guess
I just answered my own question.
So, now that the 2030 engine ban sits at the end of this decade like a giant waterfall of oblivion towards which we, in the fragile kayak of our 2020/2021 hopes and dreams, now inexorably inch, will car makers do the same? Surely the R&D cash pipe must now be re-directed at whatever’s next?
In truth, that shift began years ago. Back in early 2018, Mercedes’ then CEO Dieter Zetsche warned that profit growth would slow as the R&D war chest was necessarily inflated to fight on two new fronts: electrification and autonomous tech. (Merc’s R&D spending in 2017 was increased by 15 per cent to €8.7bn. In 2018 it rose to €9.1bn. In 2019, €9.66bn.)
But what if – F1 style – engine development was stopped altogether? The 911 GT3’s flat-six, as it is now (or will be very shortly; see page 56) for the next nine years? I can live with that, though emissions regulations won’t allow Porsche to leave its masterpiece alone. Stop the music on Ferrari’s naturally-aspirated V12, BMW’s twin-turbo straight-six and the Lamborghini V10? Fine by me. And I wouldn’t be upset if you told me that the story of BMW’s flat-twin motorcycle engine – now into its tenth decade – must end with the versions we have now, triumphs of evolution that are both big (1802cc in the R18 retro) and clever (new-ish on the 1250 is a VTEC-esque cam-shifting system). Nicer motorcycle engines to work with and to enjoy riding you’ll struggle to find.
I’m particularly happy to call time on combustion engine development if, like Toto and his Silver Arrows, the upshot is a better EV powertrain next year. I don’t even mind if we call time on car development full-stop. An electric F-Type that, like Jaguar’s battery-electric royal-wedding E-Type, simply replaces the engine and gearbox with a battery and e-motor? I’m in, particularly if the money saved not fixing the F-Type’s not-broken body, interior, steering and suspension can then be spent on some tiny, lightweight and punchy e-hardware; stuff to make me want to plug in.
That’s the clincher. We have electric cars I’d choose on merit. Next up is an electric sports car that’d warrant me doing the same. Creating it won’t be cheap, so if that means it has to look like a D-Type or a Porsche 907, well, fine.
Enjoy the issue.