I've heard that in Malaysia Martin said it gives the car straight line speed advantage.(not much of course)
I dunno, they probably took into account the top speed when they were working out the appropriate restrictions etc.
However, there would be much higher torque, cos of the increased engine capacity, certainly up to its' 16,000 rpm rev limiter, it would be able to power out of corners in a way that the V8s cannot
You have to control the amount of cylinders so no team getting the advantage of extra HP's(or whatever). Capacity is not imortant but the amount of cylinders must be controled to ensure fair racing.
If anything, I would say it's the other way 'round.
You can have any number of cylinders, but the capacity itself makes the difference, as the bigger it is, the more room there is for combustion.
To have fewer cylinders, they would have to be bigger, which leads to bigger vibrations, to have more cylinders could be more complex and possibly less effecient.
and now you know
