Following an initial meeting in Frankfurt between the UIM and car manufacturers to discuss the feasablity of using 4 stroke engines in F1 racing, a second meeting in Dublin took place after the Irish F1 Grand Prix.
Under the Chairmanship of Tony Hall, it was announced that 4 strokes would be welcomed and Tony went onto to disclose technical details and time scale in which the engines would be introduced. However, like Frankfurt, one major topic was not discussed and that was drive units. It does not seem a problem to develop an engine that fits the F1 criteria, but upto now, how to transmit that power into the water has not been addressed.
Another point that arose at the Irish 'get together' was costings as there was dispute as to the costs of buying and running a Mercury 2.5 for a full season. OMC supremo Cees Van der Veldon suggested that a Merc 2.5 costs about $75,000 per season to run and maintain, a figure Mercury Technical Director Fred Hauenstein doubted. Fred also went onto say, that his company would be against anyone adapting their lower units to take a 4 stroke engine.
Geoff Goddard, Director of Engines for TWR indicated that a TWR racing 4 stroke for F1 would possibly be in the region of $75,000 and that did not include transmission.
It is now a case of waiting to see if enough team owners express enough interest to take F1 4 stroke engines to the next stage of development.
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