Roses get a good rap throughout history. Thorns, beauty, fading, getting names, being nameless... Yet all beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Many of us would appear to hold that if it has eight cylinders in a V-for-victory configuration it must automatically be a rose of great beauty. To be honest, not a bad assumption. I've never met a V8 I didn't like. Even those powering chainsaws (go look it up on You Tube, and then be afraid...). But... but... I also love a well-balanced straight six a flat four, a rotary, a V12, or the most remarkable modern (ish) engine I've ever heard on the road, the 8.0L V10 in the first generation Dodge Viper.
Then add a supercharger or turbo for extra spice! Never fails to amuse. Give any of those engines more low-speed torque? Extended top end? Smoother power delivery? Sure, I'll take! Which brings us, dear petrol-sniffing reader, back once again to electricity. Miss Physics will tell you that it is not how big your energy reserve is, it is how you deploy it. Power is nothing without control and all that.
This article came about due to the lovely banter generated by the article describing how Mohammed ben Sulayem (MbS) has suddenly declared that V8s are coming back whether the manufacturers agree or not! Which, given his love of winning, I'm sure they have already all said moving from a V6 back to a V8 is fine and dandy... as long as we keep some electrons in there! (Note, at the time of writing both Ford and GM have just gone public with supporting statements, rather confirming MbS had verbal agreements before going public).
Long time readers will, age allowing, recall I've previously observed that all this "road relevance" carry on is nothing more than a smoke screen for those within the car companies who actually love racing. They need to justify pouring huge amounts of resource into what, at the end of the day, is screaming around in circles in psychotically over-powered cars with no real world use whatsoever. It's just, well, it's fun. Can you imagine going along to a Mercedes board meeting with the investment request of "Well, it's damn good fun, the girls love the drivers, and we all get to party every race weekend! Can we please have $500 million?"
Compared to, "This is a clear link to our remarkable road going technology. The consultants tell us sales will increase 7% year-on-year. We will attract an additional 15% of female buyers and retention rates for existing buyers can increase above 90%, ensuring we retain sales over and above our competition! Stock values are assured to go up. Can we please have $500 million?"
I think you know which one is more likely to win over the board. So, a return to V8s, with the necessary camouflage of electrons spread liberally all over, is a done deal. MbS would not have spoken so openly if he did not already have the trophy on his mantlepiece for winning this particular argument. His only downfall is if he refuses to allow the manufacturers enough of the electron camouflage they desperately need to get board approval to keep partying around the world for ten months of the year on shareholder dollars.
Speaking of dollars. Anyone else noticed how Toto always speaks like Worm Tongue (he of Lord of the Rings whispering fame) about the latest engines? He loved the previous hybrids, he loves the new hybrids, he loves sprint weekends. He recently told haters to simply shut up and go away. This is the Toto who currently holds around 28% of the Mercedes AMG Petronas team, valued at $6bn right now thanks to Liberty Media. 28% of $6bn is just short of $1.7bn. That's billion folks. How nice do you think you could talk about V6 turbo hybrid engines for $1.7bn? The average UK salary for 2025 was just short of £40,000, being around $54,400 per annum. So, dear humble reader, it would take the average UK worker 31,250 years to earn as much as Toto's stake in the Mercedes AMG Petronas team. Given that early civilisation only appeared in Mesopotamia around 12,000 years ago it means the average UK worker needs to have been working for nearly three times longer than civilisation has existed to earn as much as Toto's current stake in the team is worth. Sit with that a moment. I'll wait...
Quite. Big numbers. Heart rate back down yet? No, mine neither. I'll do a bit more about the money in F1 another day, but for now back to engines.
No fans. No money. No gravy train for life for all those with a finger in the F1 pie. So much as the company boards want pain free returns, and Toto, the red hand gang (all those with blood on their hands for killing our sport in the name of dollars), and Liberty media simply want rivers of gold flowing into their vaults. Yet they realise if they really do drive the fans away the Golden Goose is going to get her tubes tied and it's all over.
So, manufacturer teams need to convince boards of road relevance and increased sales to get the wallets open. MbS and the gang need to convince boards it is money well spent so the money keeps flowing. Then the glue that holds it all together is the fans. Us. We need to buy subscriptions, limited edition caps, shoes, bags, tops, iPhone cases. We need to keep watching so they can sell the show to sponsors and broadcasters. They are all chasing dollars (ours!). We are all chasing sport, a dream, and heroes. At the nexus of those conflicting requirements one can find a balance of unity and joy... just... on a good day, usually a wet race at a classic track when the magic still happens.
Thus, the V8 coated in electrons. No one 100% loves it... but no one 100% hates it. It is a compromise of beauty. Teams can sell it to their boards. Marketing can sell the road relevance to us (occasionally). The team owners can keep driving cost caps down, so profits go ever higher. While there appears to be no limit on how much people will spend on a limited edition team cap (only 42,000,000 made for the Miami GP weekend buy NOW!), or a curated trackside guest experience.
The only reason I can see MbS yelling this so loud is that everyone has already informally agreed to it because it meets so many needs of so many stakeholders - namely easier to sell within companies, and cheaper to produce thus improving team profit margins - and for once fans actually love it too! They just need to guard against becoming too smug, and ensure that the storyline is a ripper for the next DTS season. All of a sudden a return to V8s is in everyone's interests. Plus it still gulps liquid fuel, an added benefit for the fuel dealers of the world to maintain our addition.
MbS had to grab this victory as his own before anyone else claimed it. He needed his stamp on it and then rapid approval to proceed. Because the one thing none of them want is the Golden Goose completing that visit to family planning.
Max Noble
Learn more about Max and check out his previous features, here
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