Aren't April Fools supposed to have a comedy slant to them rather than, you know, outright lies?

The calmer tones of F1's new-generation turbo V6 engines could be artificially enhanced, according to Bernie Ecclestone.

The F1 chief executive is worried the sport will lose some of its appeal to fans when next year's engines fail to live up to the dramatic noise of the current V8s.

The Grand Prix circuit promoters, led by Australia's Ron Walker, are also worried.

"As Bernie will attest," Walker told F1 business journalist Christian Sylt, "it (the V6) sounds like a lawnmower engine, and we will be fighting this tooth and nail."

Less publicly worried are the engine makers themselves, who see the new regulations as a welcome step into the automobile's modern era.

It is also expected that Honda could now return to F1, amid rumors Volkswagen and Toyota are also interested in the V6 rules.

But Ecclestone thinks the radical change of regulations is actually a risk for the suppliers.

"The danger is that what will happen is what always happens with the manufacturers, which is that if it doesn't work they will stop," he told Autoweek.

And another risk is that the 'lawnmower' tones of the V6s will also drive the spectators away.

"What Ron (Walker) is saying is that you have to make sure that the engines will make it to 16,000 revs," said Ecclestone.

"That was agreed and now we know they won't rev to anything like that. The fuel flow has been agreed so even if you have big tanks it still can't rev (to 16,000)."

Admitting it is not his preferred option, Ecclestone nonetheless revealed that artificially enhancing the V6 engine sound is a possibility.

"Maybe we can make them sound like the current engines," he said.

Walker added that in 2011, "(FIA president Jean) Todt told me in Australia that the next thing is they are going to have a hybrid.

"I said 'what about the noise' and he said they will put a squeak box on the back of the car. God almighty!"

That's the thing about this article. For something posted on 1st April, it is written with a deep amount of detail and (supposed) fact. No obvious comedy. Which is what 1st April is supposed to be about.

Glad I'm not the only one who was annoyed by that this year. When people start even slightly wondering whether it's true or not, the joke's on the writer, not on the readers. It's just pain-in-the-ass comedy, the worst form of comedy there is.

We have the same sort of arguments everytime there's a change of anything in F1. The move from V10's to V8's in 2006 was going to harm spectator interest because of how crap the V8's were going to sound, The 2009 aero regulations were going to make cars so ugly that people stopped watching & the stepped noses of 2012 were supposed to do the same. Yet each time after some initial complaints a few races into the season everyone stops complaining & just focuses on the on-track racing which is afterall what we all watch to see.

Bernie's been bitching about the new engine's since before the new formula was even decided & he was banging on about how crap they sound before he even heard one.
James Allen heard the new Mercedes unit a few months back & didn't seem to think it sounded that bad.

Also Indycar have V6 Turbo's & I actually quite like hoe they sound & the switch to the V6 Turbo hasn't harmed the racing at all.



We have the same sort of arguments everytime there's a change of anything in F1. The move from V10's to V8's in 2006 was going to harm spectator interest because of how crap the V8's were going to sound, The 2009 aero regulations were going to make cars so ugly that people stopped watching & the stepped noses of 2012 were supposed to do the same. Yet each time after some initial complaints a few races into the season everyone stops complaining & just focuses on the on-track racing which is afterall what we all watch to see.

And yet when stuff came in that fundamentally hurt the racing product (Traction Control, the excess of aerodynamic flick ups in the 00's, hell, even refuelling) they made great fuss about how this would actually be for the good of the sport.

Traction control made the engines splutter and wheeze and sound HORRID for about 6/7 years and they didn't have a problem with the cars sounding like they were shedding bolts every time they got on the power.

Selective, Bernie.....very selective.