What’s really going on with engines in F1

UPDATE Rumor has it that Red Bull's two-year engine deal with Ferrari, complete with an option to buy further components, such as the gearbox, cost them $20 million per year despite the fact the Ferrari V8 was five million dollars more than a Honda deal, who they were also talking to. Red Bull opted for the Ferrari engines despite the fact Sauber never showed well with Ferrari engines. Clearly there are politics going on behind the scenes and some are speculating that now that Champ Car owners Kevin Kalkhoven and Gerald Forsythe own Cosworth, neither of whom are in the "F1 inner-circle," there is a political move afoot to remove Cosworth from the F1 paddock by getting each team hooked up with engines that are backed by a major car company. Cosworth engines have no major car company badging their engines like when Ford put their name on them, and without that, their days in F1 may be numbered. 04/24/05 With Red Bull signing with Ferrari yesterday, Sauber will almost certainly be powered by a BMW engine in 2006. Hinwil chief Peter Sauber, after nearly a decade in alliance with the Prancing Horse, revealed that Red Bull will likely be the only customer of Ferrari next year.

BMW motorsport director Dr Mario Theissen, meanwhile, said recently that the probability that a '06 customer engine deal will be penned is 'higher than fifty percent.'

Kalkhoven and his board of directors flew on his private jet to Imola to discuss the future with the Sauber team management, only to arrive on Saturday to find they announced a deal with Ferrari. We hear Kalkhoven was livid at the way Cosworth has been treated – having specifically asked the team whether the trip would be worthwhile.

The Midland team had previously held an option with Ferrari, but that expired on March 31st and they are likely to re-sign with Toyota for less money than Ferrari was asking and their engines make more HP than Ferrari. However, the team is due to meet with Cosworth this weekend.

We should not be too fast to think Kevin Kalkhoven was outmaneuvered in F1, he usually does not get outmaneuvered in anything. He (Cosworth) is in negotiations with Williams which rumors suggest are in the advanced stages…. Moreover, it may be that Red Bull realized if Williams became a Cosworth customer that Red Bull would be the 'Red Headed Step Child' on par with Minardi and only second or third in line for first generation Cosworth engines and updates.

Additionally, Red Bull has quickly become known as a very political team within the industry. The Red Bull/Ferrari deal explains the team's recent attendance at an FIA meeting (thereby siding with Ferrari) boycotted by the other 'group of nine' teams – with the exception of Midland. Let's not forget that Max Mosley and Red Bull boss Dietrich Mateschitz are close friends. Helmut Marko, who is notoriously anti-American yet he has had to get in line with the Mateschitz business mandate to increase brand awareness and sales in their most important market – America, pretty much leads Mateschitz around by the nose.

The assurances and representations made to the senior staff at Jaguar immediately after the purchase proved that Mateschitz's word is worthless with the sacking of two very well respected F1 insiders -Pitchforth and Purnell – that had engineered the turnaround evident at the first race yet it now appears Red Bull Racing is going backwards without their guidance. While Marko currently exerts a tremendous amount of influence on Mateschitz it was Mateschitz that overruled Marko on hiring Coulthard something Pitchforth and Purnell had demanded. Marko fought to keep Coulthard out and now continues to insist they should dump Coulthard at the end of the season, yet the engineering department values Coulthard greatly and many within the team are fed-up with Marko's interference and politics and there is a consensus that Marko is in over his head.

Many industry insiders believe that unless Mateschitz can convince Gerhard Berger to come on as Managing Director, or at least Sporting Director, the team will plummet down the grid. While Mateschitz has been sending his plane for Berger and meetings have been taking place not many believe that Berger will take the job which would be a big relief to Marko as it would clearly leave Marko outside looking in and put him back bullying drivers in F3 and endurance racing at best.

Oh, and by the way Sauber has had Ferrari engines for years at great cost, and the cost to Red Bull is rumored to be even steeper, and what has it done for the competitiveness of Sauber….not much. Therefore, we think Williams will go with Cosworth as their V8 engine is likely to be very competitive. The only sticking point is whether Kalkhoven and co-owner Gerald Forsythe can find an engine manufacturer to badge their Cosworth V8 in 2006. We can't see Williams running without manufacturer support behind them. Mark C.