Leave Honda out of the restraint of FIA by not being part of F1 program but has a small skunk team to work with RBR to develop further?Manoah2u wrote: ↑21 Oct 2020, 10:23...
Something possibly interesting would be a 'backdoor' deal between RBR and Honda, possibly made up a long time ago, where they were always meant to 'take over' Honda's F1 engine, have RBR develop and change the Honda F1 engine, with the help of former Honda employees (get on RBR payroll), work out how to deal with the biofuel, all without being an 'official' honda engine and thus no bad publicity if anything goes bad, and then, at the end, RBR can sell the 'engine formula' back to Honda, and use it to translate into their automotive applications.
Not saying a 'return' of Honda into F1 by then, simply the truth being that Honda has found a way to 'secretly' work on technology in a 'secret' partnership with RB technologies which will NOT cost HONDA itself any money during that period. Let's call it a loophole.
Just a thought.
Red Bull were allowed a lot of input and Mario Illien helped with their vibrational problems plus no doubt other issues.
Are Red Bull not involved in other motorsports? Possibly they could run more than the F1 engine from there.godlameroso wrote: ↑21 Oct 2020, 19:59What is RBR's budget? Somewhere around 300 million euros? The budget cap would essentially slash their budget by half, they could take the other half and spend it on the engine program, however the other manufacturers including Honda spend more than that on each of their respective programs. So RBR could continue Honda's engine program, or at least finance it, if they restrict developments on the engine, because the left overs from the budget cap wouldn't be enough to finance an entire engine program.
Ferrari is the fly in the ointment, since their power unit is down relative to the others, they are reluctant to agree to a freeze because it would lock them into an uncompetitive situation. I don't think teams are against spending less money on these engines, what they are against is being locked into an unfavorable position. If Ferrari were to have a competitive power unit for 2021, the agreement to freeze engine development would be easier. However, for Ferrari to catch up it has to invest resources, or come to an agreement with other manufacturers.
Furthermore all the manufacturers seem to be converging on a similar power unit layout anyway.
I did not mean instead of other sports, just the opposite.godlameroso wrote: ↑21 Oct 2020, 20:24I don't know how much RB has invested in other motor sports. Perhaps for marketing and commercial reasons, they wouldn't want to pull out of those other activities to focus solely on the F1 power unit. I don't know, just guessing.
Indeed, or at least irony. That all depends on the power unit Ferrari brings out next year. Remember the big step Honda took from 2015 to 2016 and the step Ferrari took from 2014 to 2015. I think they can take a similar step, then again I expect a big step from everyone next year.
I agree that is possible, I have no insight into what Ferrari are or aren't doing. They many also may have been working on this since early last year. I do know it is hard to catch up in this PU race. In my opinion the odds are against it.godlameroso wrote: ↑22 Oct 2020, 01:29Indeed, or at least irony. That all depends on the power unit Ferrari brings out next year. Remember the big step Honda took from 2015 to 2016 and the step Ferrari took from 2014 to 2015. I think they can take a similar step, then again I expect a big step from everyone next year.