Marussia: Towards an Engine Supplier Change in 2014?
Graeme Lowdon, sporting director of the Marussia team, stated at the FOTA forum organized this week in Barcelona that he did not believe Cosworth could supply V6 engines in 2014. This would consequently force the Anglo-Russian team, the last one powered by the British engine, to find a new engine partner.
As Formula 1 enters the final season of the V8 engine generation, it is preparing for the future and the introduction of turbo V6 engines starting in 2014. While Renault has already been able to present its future power unit, Ferrari and Mercedes are also making progress in developing this new generation of engines. Cosworth, for its part, stated last September that it is preparing to supply a V6 engine for 2014, although most observers remain skeptical.
Indeed, while Luca Marmorini, director of the engine and electronics department at Ferrari, recently emphasized the importance of customer teams in the development of its engine, following HRT’s withdrawal, Cosworth now has only one customer team left — Marussia — and no declared candidate teams for the supply of a potential Cosworth V6.
The chances of seeing the British engine manufacturer powering Formula 1 cars beyond /f1/actualite/15018-ferrari-espere-garder-ses-2-equipes-clientes-en-2014.html are therefore very slim, and even on the Marussia side, they seem to be already thinking about the post-Cosworth era: “What I believe is that Cosworth won’t be making an engine in 2014,” comments Graeme Lowdon, sporting director of the Anglo-Russian team, during the FOTA forum organized in Barcelona before the start of the third and final private test session. “Of course, I don’t work for Cosworth, but that’s what I’ve understood. The three suppliers [in 2014] will be Mercedes, Renault, and Ferrari.”
The Anglo-Russian team will thus have to set out in search of a new engine supplier for 2014, which should make for interesting headlines in the coming months as other teams also aim to take advantage of the regulation changes to turn to new engine partners. There is persistent talk of Toro Rosso’s interest in the future Renault V6, while Ferrari, on the other hand, has opened negotiations with Force India, where the signing of Jules Bianchi seemed to be one of the key points.
The Indian team having preferred Adrian Sutil over the French driver, Marussia could take advantage of the difficulties Luiz Razia seems to encounter in fulfilling his financial commitments, to propose Jules Bianchi replace the Brazilian at the wheel of the MR02 with the aim of securing the supply of the Ferrari V6 from 2014.
The Anglo-Russian team, however, has forged special technical ties with McLaren and Williams, powered by Mercedes and Renault, respectively: an agreement with one of these two engine manufacturers would initially seem more natural.
The avenue leading to Honda could also be worth exploring for the Banbury team. Indeed, while *Speed Week* reveals that the Japanese manufacturer may have initiated a development program for a V6 engine, Marussia might leverage its ties with McLaren to become the development team for the potential Japanese power unit before the Woking team abandons the Mercedes engine to renew its ties with the Japanese manufacturer.
