Lotus has been announced as the 14th team to enter the 2010 Formula 1 World Championship. The renowned make that brought victories to the likes of Clark, Hill, Fittapaldi, Peterson, Andretti, and Senna is making a bid for the Championship with its Cosworth powered V8. One may recall, in 1967, when F1 bumped the engine displacement up from 2.0 liters to 3.0, Lotus dropped the faithful Coventry Climax engine in favor of the venerable Cosworth V8 that lead to Clark’s flood of victories and Hill’s World Championship in 1968. The Cosworth engine (the DFV) went on to lead a combination of other team’s to victory 10 times! Cosworth, as an engine manufacturer, is the second most victorious constructor behind Ferrari. So what’s the problem?

Cosworth will be representing all 4 of the new teams coming into F1. This is not an accident, according to David Richards. He states that as a stipulation to entrance to the championship, teams are required to run Cosworth engines. The Cosworth option is a great one, having been in the business as late as the 2007 season (supplying engines to the Toro Rosso team) but begs the question: Is the FIA pushing a one supplier engine rule? Prodrive, David Richard’s racing company, has run successful quests in various forms of Motorsport, most notably at LeMans. How is it that his company was not allowed to enter even though he had a far superior proposal, budget, and staff to any of the nearest competitors? This question in fact leads to another question. Why does the FIA want so badly to have a plethora of Cosworth powered vehicles? Why is this a stipulation to entry at all. I think all of these questions will be answered in time. Key events are needed to expose the truth. The first is seeing whether or not any rules changes are made that require the incumbent teams to standardize parts (e.g. the McLaren ECU). The second is to see if the engines actually perform. If they don’t will the teams be required to keep them? We will see, in time, what this gambit brings. For now, I fear that only dark clouds lay on the horizon.