Toro Rosso F1 technical director James Key says that the switch from Renault to Honda for 2018 is not straightforward because of the way the two engines are designed.
The Faenza-based squad will use the Japanese power units from next year after having used the Renault engines during 2017.

The different locations of the turbo compressors meant that fitting the Honda is not a straightforward swap into a car that was originally being designed around the French engine.

McLaren, which will switch from Honda to Renault engines, faces the same challenge in reverse.

With Honda’s variation in power unit architecture compared to Renault, Toro Rosso technical director James Key has conceded that accommodating a new power unit has provided something of a challenge to the team’s engineers.

Talking to Autosport, Key said: “They are completely different. It’s a very nicely packaged engine, but the whole power unit is a different architecture.

“It doesn’t drop into the same space. There’s quite a bit of car layout work that has to be done to adapt to it.”

Formula 1 cars are predicted to be over two seconds per lap faster in the 2018 season, according to the latest simulation data Pirelli has been given by teams.

The revamp of technical regulations this year to make cars faster, more spectacular and harder to drive achieved its aim of cutting lap times by around five seconds over 2015 levels.

The pace was faster at every track this year. The peak was Sepang, where Lewis Hamilton's Malaysian Grand Prix pole position time was nine seconds faster than two years ago - although factors including weather, time of year and track resurfacing also played a part.

But teams' understanding of the regulations is still relatively immature, which means there are more big gains to come in 2018.

Pirelli receives simulation data from the F1 teams to help it finalise which tyre compounds to bring to each race, and the indications suggest another improvement in pace.

Pirelli's F1 racing manager Mario Isola said: "At the beginning of next year they should be quicker by one second per lap, and during a year the normal rate of development is 1-1.5s.

"So by the end of next year they should be quicker by two seconds per lap.

"If we go softer with the tyres, the cars could be ever quicker.

"But we have to remember that there is an additional weight with the halo, and that will cost about three to four tenths of a second, because of the weight plus aero implications."

Halo complications

The FIA has raised the minimum weight limit by 6kgs in 2018 for the halo.

It had already added extra weight in this year's regulations to take the halo's planned introduction into account before the cockpit device's debut was delayed.

But teams have found that the halo mountings and the work necessary to beef up their new chassis to pass the associated load tests have added even more weight, with a figure of up to 14kgs mentioned by Force India.

In F1, it is widely accepted that an extra 10kg of weight is equivalent to roughly 0.3s of lap time, depending on the track layout.

Williams will wait until January to announce the identity of their second driver for the 2018 Formula 1 season, the team have confirmed.

Robert Kubica and Sergey Sirotkin are the two names most heavily linked with the seat alongside Lance Stroll, with recent media speculation suggesting Sirotkin has edged ahead of Kubica. Daniil Kvyat, Paul di Resta and Pascal Wehrlein have also been connected with the drive.

Both Kubica and Sirotkin tested for the team in Abu Dhabi at the end of the season, although on different run plans - Kubica ran the hypersoft tyre for his quickest time, while Sirotkin's best, just half a second down, was set on the softs.

Williams have been clear that they will not rush their decision however - and with the traditional winter break on the horizon, they confirmed they will now wait for January before revealing their new line-up.

Kubica, 33, is bidding to complete what would be a remarkable comeback from life-threatening injuries suffered in a rally crash in February 2011. The 2008 Canadian Grand Prix winner competed in the WRC in the intervening years, but this year stepped up activities in F1, totalling more than 1,300 kilometres in tests with Renault and Williams.

Sirotkin meanwhile came close to breaking into F1 with Sauber back in 2014. The 22-year-old is a three-time racewinner in the newly-named F2 championship, and has served as Renault's F1 test and reserve driver for the past two years.

Mercedes is close to to producing a Formula 1 engine that can deliver a power output of 1000bhp, according to its engine boss Andy Cowell.

Mercedes has dominated F1's V6 turbo hybrid era, clinching four successive double world championships.

Power unit development has been such that in 2016 Cowell said Mercedes had exceeded 900bhp and now says it is on course to break the 1000bhp barrier.

"We're close," Cowell told Autosport. "I'm sure that'll happen at some point."

This year, Mercedes' engine hit a landmark achievement on the dyno when it broke the 50% thermal efficiency barrier for the first time.

Its progress is thought to have made its M08 EQ Power+ the most efficient racing engine ever.

Thermal efficiency, which is calculated on the amount of useful energy that can be produced from a given amount of heat input, has become a key focus for modern engine builders.

In F1, it is particularly important because of the strict fuel-flow limit rate of 100kg/hour.

When asked how long it will take until 50% thermal efficiency is transferred from the dyno to the track, Cowell said: "It's an answer for the early part of the next year.

"We need to see how the power unit development goes through the winter and our prove-out goes through the winter, and it's a balance with the car as well.

"There are engines running on the dyno - that's one thing.

"When you go to total car lap time, that's the bit where there's work being done to improve the technology on the car to enhance both aerodynamic and power unit performance.

"Let's see how it all works out."

Mercedes' first turbo-hybrid engine, introduced in 2014, had an efficiency rate of 44%.

McLaren has ruled out having a title sponsor for the 2018 Formula 1 season, despite team boss Zak Brown saying it has attracted a lot of interest from new backers.

In the past former McLaren team principal Ron Dennis suggested that the era of the title sponsor in F1 was over.

Though Brown had initially hoped to get a new title backer for McLaren, which has not had one since Vodafone's exit at the end of 2013, he now agrees they could be a thing of the past.


"I don't think we're going to have a title sponsor per se," said Brown.

"What I think we're going to have are major partners.

"If you look at F1 no one really refers to the name of the team's title partner, so I don't think there's a lot of value. We're McLaren, we're not ABC McLaren.

"There's major branding, but we don't want to sell the title, we want to remain the name of the team - McLaren.

"In NASCAR the drivers are trained to get out of the car and say, 'I'd like to thank my Chandon Ford today.'

"That doesn't happen in F1, so we want to protect our brand."

Brown says that interest in McLaren has been stirred both by changes in F1 as a whole and the stronger situation of the team itself as it switches from Honda to Renault power for 2018.

"We have signed some sponsors, but I don't know exactly when we're going to announce them," he added. "We're not done yet, so all sponsors are welcome!

"We've got a lot of excitement. There's a good buzz around F1, TV ratings are up, live attendance is up, new owners, strategic vision, so there's momentum behind F1.

"And then there's momentum behind McLaren. We've got Fernando [Alonso], we've got Stoffel [Vandoorne], we've got Lando [Norris] coming through the ranks, we've got a new engine partner, so generally we feel that there's some wind at the tail, as opposed to a headwind."

[...] The teams have had to not only fit the Halo mountings but also bolster the structure around the cockpit.

"There are two tests," said Force India technical director Andy Green. "They're incredibly tough to pass, and if you don't pass them, you don't race.

[...] On top of the crash testing, there is a direct impact on performance that could play a role next season. And that comes not from aerodynamics, but weight.

[...] The change will make driver weight a bigger issue for the first time since 2013, although some have still complained about struggling to hit the limit during the V6 hybrid era.

[...] The arrival of the Halo could influence other areas for teams beyond the technical side, as it potentially alters sponsorship opportunities.

FIA president Jean Todt has resurrected the idea of a 'global engine' that could be used in both Formula 1 and other motorsport series.

The concept was previously proposed in the late 2000s, when the FIA commissioned British engineering consultancy Ricardo to investigate the potential for a common rules package to create a base engine that could be adapted for use in as many as 11 major series around the world.

The 2009 report proposed that championships ranging from F1 and IndyCar to single-seater ladder categories, rallying, touring cars and prototype sportscars could use versions of the same engine, but the concept fizzled out amid concerns over cost and practicality from the targeted championships and manufacturers.

But with huge investment needed to produce engines for the current hybrid F1 regulations, Todt suggested reviving the global rules concept could be attractive.

"Probably what we should say, which is not easy as well, is could we use this [F1] engine in other categories of motorsport?" he said.

"At the moment each category of motorsport has its own single regulations, so probably we should try to see if we can have some synergies."

Todt highlighted the World Endurance Championship's LMP1 class as a candidate for sharing engine rules with F1, saying grand prix racing's move towards longer-life engines made it more practical for its technology to be used in long-distance sportscar racing too.

"We have the endurance championship with LMP1," said Todt.

"We have completely different engines, so would it make sense to anticipate a future for the endurance championship using this synergy - which incidentally is covering the same kind of mileage."

The WEC is currently assessing options for future rules packages as it reacts to Porsche and Audi's departures from LMP1.

Though a move towards road-car styling has been mooted for 2020/21, a major change in engine philosophy is considered unlikely as privateers have been promised rules stability.

Motorsport.com understands that Todt's 'global engine' idea has not so far been formally suggested to LMP1 teams.

F1 and top-level sportscar racing's last attempt to share engine technology proved ill-fated, when Group C's move towards F1's 3.5-litre engines led to the decline and eventual demise of the World Sportscar Championship ahead of the 1993 season.

Start getting excited F1 fans – there are just 80 days until the lights go out in Australia for the first race of the year! To whet your appetite for what’s to come, we’ve compiled a list of 10 of the most intriguing story lines heading into what promises to be a massively competitive season...

1. Can Ferrari or Red Bull topple Mercedes?

They may have scooped both titles for a fourth consecutive year, but there’s no doubt the Silver Arrows were pushed harder than ever in 2017 – indeed, there were many in the paddock who felt it was Ferrari and not Mercedes who had the best car on the grid last term, with the Italian team’s implosion over the second half of the season one of the key factors in Sebastian Vettel losing out on the drivers’ crown to a resurgent Lewis Hamilton.

Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne says he has no doubt that the Prancing Horse will again be fighting at the sharp end in 2018, but will Mercedes – buoyed by victory against an external foe rather than by internal bragging rights – come back even stronger?

According to Toto Wolff, the Brackley-based team know that the threat won’t just be coming from Ferrari’s direction in 2018, with Red Bull – winners of two of the final six races of last season – expected to start season two of F1’s latest rule cycle in much better shape than 12 months ago, having changed up their production schedule in order to hit the ground running in testing. And Wolff thinks there could be a fourth name to throw into the hat too…

2. How far will McLaren climb with Renault power?

With their turbulent relationship with Honda now at an end – a relationship that yielded just 133 points in three years – McLaren are looking forward to bright beginnings with new power unit partner Renault. The question is, having complained for some time that the true excellence of their package was being masked by a lack of grunt and woeful reliability, will they surge up the order in 2018 or be forced to eat their words?

Having finished ninth last year, you’d expect the eight-time constructors’ champions to improve considerably if, as racing director Eric Boullier claims, their chassis is already podium quality – but it’s one thing to get on terms with Renault’s works team or the Mercedes-powered duo of Force India and Williams (no mean feat in itself) and quite another to be in the mix for race wins. One thing’s for certain: if there’s anything like podium potential in the car, there’s no driver you’d rather count on to deliver on that promise than Fernando Alonso. Having been frustrated at every turn since he re-joined McLaren in 2015, the Spaniard could be like a cork out of a champagne bottle this term.

3. Will Honda power prove a blessing or curse for Toro Rosso?

Honda may have parted ways with McLaren, but their F1 project remains in full swing thanks to their new link-up with Toro Rosso. After many years with customer engines, Franz Tost says the Italian team are extremely happy to finally have an exclusive working relationship with a power unit partner, citing more chassis freedom and exclusivity of parts as major bonuses. However, as McLaren found out, those aren’t necessarily pluses if there’s a fundamental lack of horsepower to play with, let alone next to no reliability...

A more worrying factor for Toro Rosso is the fact that they weren’t exactly looking quick at the end of last season when they had Renault engines bolted into the back of their cars (though some of that can be attributed to having two rookie drivers), plus at least two of the three teams that finished behind them in the standings in 2017 – McLaren and Sauber – should make good progress this year as a result of their own power unit machinations.

4. How will the halo affect racing?

Like it or loathe it, the halo is coming to F1 in 2018, and that means – for the teams and drivers at least – the biggest talking point is no longer aesthetics but just how much impact it will have on racing.

There are two main factors at play here – driver visibility and car weight. In terms of the former, the FIA are confident that despite being surrounded by a fairly large piece of kit, drivers will still have better visibility than in other racing categories, such as sportscars (though after testing the halo in Hungary, Mercedes junior George Russell said seeing the overhead start light gantry could be tough).

In terms of weight, however, there are a host of potential ramifications. To take the cockpit protection device into account, the FIA has added another 6kg to the minimum weight limit, taking an already hefty car up to an even heavier 734kg. The problem is, the halo, its mountings and brackets could come in at something more akin to 15kg – and that means the teams will have to find ways to save weight in other areas or face the prospect of having less ballast to use for performance reasons.

And that’s especially bad news for the likes of Nico Hulkenberg, who, as one of F1’s taller drivers, is naturally heavier than many of his more diminutive peers…

5. Who will come out on top in the Red Bull battle?

According to Red Bull’s Helmut Marko, Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo ‘pushed each other to the next level’ in 2017 – but while Ricciardo enjoyed championship supremacy over Verstappen (5th vs 6th), it was the Dutchman – so often the victim of unreliability – who bagged more wins (2 to 1) and was decisively the quicker of the two in qualifying. In fact, even Ricciardo himself would probably admit to being outperformed over the course of the season.

But given the closeness of their rivalry, it will be fascinating to see which of the two has the edge in 2018. Form suggests it will be the swashbuckling 20-year-old, who outscored every driver on the grid except Lewis Hamilton over the final six races of last season. But equally, if Ricciardo can find a way of ‘switching on’ the current generation of tyres in qualifying (one of his weak points) and can resist overdriving in response to Verstappen’s searing pace, he could turn the tide.

Certainly there are few – if any – better drivers than the ultra-consistent, hard-charging Australian when it comes to the supreme judgement needed in wheel-to-wheel scenarios – and if Verstappen has any weak spot it’s probably in that area, where his often high-risk approach has got him into trouble on occasion, not least in Hungary last season when he ended up ramming into the side of his team mate on the opening lap…

6. Who will race alongside Stroll at Williams?

It's just weeks until the season kicks off in Australia and there’s just one slot on the grid left to be filled. The question is, who’s going to take it?

Ever since Felipe Massa confirmed his retirement, speculation has been rife as to who will partner Lance Stroll at Williams in 2018, and if you believe the rumour mill the seat will go to one of two men: one-time Grand Prix winner Robert Kubica (pictured above) or former Renault tester Sergey Sirotkin, both of who drove for the team at the 2017 post-race test in Abu Dhabi.

The romantics’ choice is undoubtedly Kubica, who hasn’t raced in F1 since sustaining life-threatening injuries suffered in a rally crash in February 2011. However, with only a handful of tests under his belt, the world at large (if not Renault and Williams) are still a little in the dark as to the impact of his physical limitations. If he’s able to race at anywhere near the level he showed in the past – and it’s a big IF –he would be the natural choice for Sir Frank’s venerable team, blending speed and experience. But can Williams take that chance?

Or do they take a punt on rookie Sirotkin, who impressed in testing and would reportedly bring decent backing, but is someone who, with a 19-year-old in the other car, would leave the team with a gaping void in experience terms. Facing such a tough choice, it’s perhaps little wonder Williams decided to defer the decision until the New Year…

7. Will Kimi do enough to retain his Ferrari seat?

It’s like an annual saga: the season reaches its midway point and the rumours begin to circle about whether Ferrari will keep Kimi Raikkonen for another year. For the last few years, whether through his own performances, pressure from Sebastian Vettel or a lack of other options, the Iceman has put pen to paper for the following season, but in 2018 the pressure is really on.

“If we find the right key, Raikkonen drives like a God,” quipped Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne at the team’s annual Christmas celebration. “Probably this is the last season to find the right key and we must do it. If we cannot find the right key, the choice will fall on a young driver...”

When Marchionne mentions young drivers, he does so in the knowledge that Ferrari have highly-touted F2 champion Charles Leclerc on their books, and if the young Monegasque performs well for Sauber this season (more of which below) he could be first in line to take Raikkonen’s place.

There’s only one way for Raikkonen to stave off those rumours – show more of the kind of form that took him to pole in Monaco last year and less of the kind that often saw him either trail in a long way behind Vettel or get beaten by drivers in cars that had little right to be in front of a Ferrari.

8. Will Renault dethrone Force India – or aim even higher?

Few teams finished last season with as big of a smile as Renault, who pipped Toro Rosso to sixth in the constructors’ standings at the very last race in Abu Dhabi. That result capped a very promising campaign for the French manufacturer in which they made significant progress on both engine and chassis fronts, as well as cementing one of the most dynamic driver pairings on the grid, with Carlos Sainz joining late in the year from Toro Rosso to partner the ever-impressive Nico Hulkenberg.

The question is, what will happen next? With the same engine, Red Bull proved comprehensively faster than the works team, and if McLaren adopt Renault engines and also pull ahead there could be some embarrassment.

Then again, there’s nothing to say a buoyant and well-funded Renault – who’ve made some key hires over the past couple of years – won’t make another decent step of their own, although perhaps overhauling Williams and Force India – teams they outraced towards the end of 2017 – in the constructors' stakes is a more realistic target than challenging the top three.

9. Can Alfa and Leclerc flip Sauber’s fortunes?

The last two seasons have been nothing short of miserable for Sauber, with the Swiss team accruing just seven points as they struggled at the very rear of the field.

But finally there appear to be bright skies on the horizon. Not only does the team have settled ownership and leadership, they also have a new technical and commercial partnership with Alfa Romeo which should provide a solid launching pad from which to revive their fortunes.

As part of the deal Sauber will have access to latest-spec Ferrari power units, which is a serious upgrade on the outdated engines which so hampered them in 2017, not to mention the Honda units they were at one stage signed up to use.

The Swiss squad have also signed one of motor racing’s brightest talents to race alongside long-time driver Marcus Ericsson – Ferrari young gun Charles Leclerc (pictured above). The 20-year-old from Monaco comes with an enormous reputation after dominating in F2 as a rookie last season – will he provide similar fireworks in F1 in 2018? If he’s given the car, don’t bet against it.

10. How much of an impact will the three-engine rule have?

Last year each driver had four power units with which to tackle the 20-race season. This year they have one fewer – and there’s one extra race…

What does that mean for the championship? Well, with each power unit now required to last for as many as seven races – longer-life engines having been pushed by the rule makers for cost reduction reasons – manufacturers will face an even tougher juggling act when it comes to balancing performance and reliability.

Get the balance wrong and costly grid penalties or race retirements will soon add up – and in the context of a tight championship battle could prove crucial.

Furthermore, with just three engines, manufacturers have just two chances to introduce an upgraded unit throughout the season (without penalty). That heaps further pressure on the likes of Honda to get it right from the off…

Kimi Raikkonen's race engineer David Greenwood has left Ferrari ahead of the 2018 Formula 1 season.

Greenwood joined Ferrari for 2015, having held the role of chief engineer at Marussia, and has spent the last three seasons working with Raikkonen.

He has left the team for personal reasons and will return to the UK, where it is understood he will take up a role on Manor's World Endurance Championship project.

The British team will step up to the privateer LMP1 ranks for the WEC's 2018/19 'superseason' using Ginetta's new prototype.

Ferrari has yet to make a decision on who will replace Greenwood, but one is expected in the coming weeks.

As part of the minor reshuffle, its former pitwall-based operations chief Diego Ioverno will no longer travel to races and will instead work from the factory.

It remains unclear as to whether he will be directly replaced or if his duties will be split between engineering staff at the track.

One option is that Jock Clear takes on some of those duties as part of his role as head of race activities.

Further adjustments to the structure and respective staff duties are expected in the coming weeks ahead of pre-season testing, which starts on 26 February.

Ferrari will unveil its 2018 F1 challenger on February 22 - its new car successfully passed the relevant FIA static and frontal crash tests in December, believed to be the first new model to do so.

The Mercedes Formula 1 team engine for the 2018 season will be "pretty much all new", according to its engine boss Andy Cowell.

The Mercedes engine has been F1's benchmark since the turbo V6 hybrid rules were introduced in 2014, with the team winning four successive double world championships.

Ferrari provided a sterner challenge during this campaign, with Red Bullemerging as a strong threat in the closing stages of the season.

Mercedes is pushing on all fronts to maintain its advantage and is planning extensive updates to the engine.

"Pretty much all new," Cowell told Motorsport.com regarding the expectations for this year's engine.

"It's had several phase-ups through the season and we've got ideas to improve the power, the indicated power in the engine.

"We've got ideas to reduce the friction in pretty much every area of the power unit, or the losses in electrical systems."

Although F1 is entering its fifth year with the current engine formula, Cowell believes there is still more to come in terms of pure performance gains.

"Every time you do an engine, every time you do a phase update you've always learned," he said.

"So you freeze the concept, you do the work, you do the prove-out, you go racing and all the way along that journey it's intensely frustrating because you're learning but you cannot incorporate into that phase without corrupting the quality fundamentally.

"So it's ensuring that we do have a learning culture that observes and learns and reflects and then remembers that so that then when it's time to put the next concept together we've got a whole load of ideas and a lot of it is small, marginal gains on well-trodden areas.

"Some of it is big, fundamental bits of learning, combustion progress, friction reduction, new materials that unlock areas where we've been struggling with reliability. And sometimes it's just a surprise.

"There's still gains to be had [with this formula]. It's a plethora of marginal gains, five millisecond gains.

"Then there's those nice surprises where you thought north would give you 2kW and actually it's south that gives you 2kW.

"It has just been about doing those great experiments and that's where the test facility is important.

"You need to think about what it is you're trying to measure but you need a very impressive dyno with incredible sensors and good test methodology to genuinely detect those gains and to pick them out from the noise of general testing."

Formula 1 plans to revamp the merchandise experience for fans this year, adopting the 'souvenir tent' concept that proved to be a flop in NASCAR.

Back in 2015, NASCAR announced a 10-year agreement with merchandise experts Fanatics, who will be working on the F1 project, to help streamline the sales of trackside souvenir products.

Central to the idea was a 'superstore tent' that provided a centralised point for the purchase of all team and driver merchandise.

But while the idea seemed great on paper, NASCAR reverted to the traditional trailers that had previously proved popular in the middle of the 2017 season.

F1 is committing to the 'superstore' idea though, and has ambitious plans for it to become the centre of merchandise sales in 2018.

Commercial chief Sean Bratches does not think that the small stall model is the right thing for F1.

"I'm not sure that we are going to revert to the 1970s of leaning over a table and saying I want this one," explained Bratches.

"We have engaged Fanatics, which is the market leader in this space and has a lot of knowledge in terms of sporting events and how product is merchandised and sold.

"Next year we will have a massive tent experience. You will be able to pick items up off a rack and see if it fits, then go into a queue with 15-20 registers and if you want to send it home our partner DHL will be there to take care of it for you."

Bratches suggested that the merchandise tent will sell team and driver souvenirs, as well as official F1 items and those from each individual grand prix.

"We think it is an experience that fans believe in and they are looking for," he said.

"We have done a lot of research at each grand prix that supports this.

"If you look at NASCAR in terms of the apportionment of sales in their property, you have about 5% of content that is NASCAR driven, you've got about 30% of content that is 'I was there' like a Daytona top - and the 65% balance is either team or driver merchandise.

"With our [F1] brand we can probably fight above those percentages, but team and driver merchandise will still be predominant.

"We want to give them a better platform to market their brands and their merchandise and generate incremental revenues."

ESPN takes a look at some of the young drivers on the cusp of elevation to Formula One. Here's what they are up to in 2018 and what they need to do to make it to F1.