Bernie Ecclestone in Malaysia has continued his push against F1’s radical new engine rules for 2013.
The sport’s chief executive met with all the team bosses at Sepang and outlined his plan to keep the current V8 formula rather than see F1 switch as scheduled to ’green’ turbo 4-cylinder engines.
The FIA, headed by president Jean Todt, has already announced the new rules, but Auto Motor und Sport reports that Ecclestone wants the F1 Commission to formally propose that the V8s be kept in 2013.
80-year-old Ecclestone’s argument is that he is feeling pressure from the race promoters and television broadcasters to drop the four-cylinder plan because the engines will "sound terrible". "If we lose the sound of formula one, we will be losing a great deal," he said recently.
It is believed that Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo is backing the push to stick with V8.
"Funny," said Todt. "All the teams voted for the new engine last year - even Ferrari."
But it is argued that no new manufacturers have said they are entering F1 because of the new rules, which according to some estimates are costing more to develop than was originally planned.
"They’ve obviously got a different calculation than we do," said Cosworth’s Mark Gallagher, with it believed the independent British marque is spending only EUR 30 million on the 2013 formula.