1948? 4.5 litre NA or 1.5 litre forced induction no fuel rules (FI dominated)WhiteBlue wrote:I cannot remember to read anything about that before. I know that historically there were bans on maximum number of cylinders, for instance more than 12. And the fuel tank capacity limit in 1986 was very different to the fuel flow limit of 2014. Do you have a source for that minimum cylinder rule?Tommy Cookers wrote:the first time there was a fuel quantity limit for turbo F1 (in the 80s) the rules immediately banned engines with less than 4 cylinders
Turbos were officially banned in 1989 because they were deemed too expensive to develop and too dangerous due to their high power generation. I privately believe that was a load of bull. Ferrari simply had no chance against Honda's V6 turbo and they lobbied the turbo ban in an attempt to gain an advantage using their historic design competence of V12s. Power could have easily been limited by reducing the boost as they did in 1988 and V12s are not intrinsically cheaper than turbo V6. It was simply an exercise of political power to stop the Japanese domination which was massive in the McLaren MP4/4.
1952 WDC to F2 rules 2 litre NA or 0.5 litre forced induction
1954 2.5 litre NA or 0.75 litre forced induction (there was a 2 cyl NA Ferrari not raced)
1958 road-type fuel ie octane limit (100/130 Avgas used as equivalent)
1961 1.5 litre NA or 0.5 litre forced induction (there was a 16 cyl NA Coventry Climax raced)
1966 1.5 litre forced induction or 3 litre NA
1971 Lotus gas turbine 4wd tried
1973 tankage 250 l
1975/7? Renault turbo appears LeMans/F1 (WEC rules having for decades allowed 2.1 litre FI vs. 3 litre NA)
1984 tankage reduced to 220 l and refuelling banned, so fuel quantity limited
1986 quantity/tankage 195 l .... NA banned
1987 4 bar limit turbo, 3.5 litre NA (quantity/tankage 195 l for BOTH) (NA 40 kg lighter @ 500 kg)
1988 quantity/tankage 150 l 2.5 bar turbo, (NA quantity/tankage 195 l)
1989 turbos banned ...... NA quantity/tankage 150 l
so in 1988 (the best) turbos beat (less than the best?) NA and used a lot less fuel volume, but about the same fuel mass ?
(the turbos were using eg 84% Toluene fuel, surely the NAs only low % of Toluene)
2012 fuel quality now has no max Octane number, but a minimum number !! (to prevent backdoor dieselisation of F1)
not a pretty sight, all those different rules !
engineering logic says limit fuel mass or massflow (ie rate), (better Carbon mass ?) , otherwise no engine rules ?
when Cosworth went turbo they said they went V6 because 'the V6 couldn't be banned'
when the fuel quantities were cut Alfa Romeo eg went from 8 cyl to 4 cyl, other new engines were 4 cyl also
