There has been talk for some time about a new engine project in Formula 1, in the run-up to the new engine regulations in 2013. The name Craig Pollock popped up a few weeks ago, but the former boss of British American Racing would only say that he was “working on projects involved in the technical, marketing and sponsorship side of motorsports in general” and that there was nothing ready to be announced.
Some research has now revealed that in March Pollock established a Swiss company called P.U.R.E Corporation SA, with the aim of “research and development and the commercialisation of engines using clean energy”. From what we can gather the name is a acronym for Propulsion Universelle et Recuperation Energie.
Although there is considerable engine technology available in Switzerland, the logical place for any new engine company to set up is in Paris, where Renault and Peugeot have both run similar operations in the past. The other alternatives are the Northampton area, where Cosworth and Ilmor have created a similar cluster, or the Modena region of Italy, where there is much expertise centred around Ferrari.
The word is that the project will be linked to a company called TEOS Powertrain Engineering, which is a joint venture, established in January, between the French government-owned IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN) and Mecachrome, a company well known in F1 circles. This has been partially owned by the French government since the original firm, owned by the Casella Family, ran into trouble and went into administration. Teos is headquartered in Trappes, a southern suburb of Paris, in an IFPEN facility that has been operating since 1996. This is located close to the Renault Technocentre, the Citroen and Peugeot Sports headquarters and the site of the old Prost Grand Prix factory.
IFPEN is charged with providing new technologies and materials relating to transportation. In its press statement in January TEOS said that it would “offer complete projects for powertrain design and prototype production to the OEM and sport automotive industry”.
We hear that the man who is leading the technical side of the operation is Jean-Pierre Boudy. Now 66, the hugely-experienced French engineer joined Amedée Gordini’s celebrated company in 1969, after graduating from the Ecole Nationale Superieure d’Arts et Metiers. A year later Gordini was taken over by Renault and Boudy was put to work developing an engine for rallying before teaming up with Francois Castaing and Bernard Dudot to design a two-litre V6 engine. This was developed to win the European two-liter sportscar championship with Alpine and was then modified in order to compete and win at Le Mans. It also won several European Formula 2 titles. Under Castaing’s guidance Boudy and Dudot then went on to design the Renault F1 turbo engine, which was debuted in 1977. As Renault grew to become one of F1′s leading players Boudy was put in charge of Renault Sport’s engine research and development department at Viry-Chatillon.
In 1983, as Renault was running down its operations in F1, Boudy was offered the chance to head the engine department of Jean Todt’s new Peugeot Talbot Sport operation and after success in the World Rally Championship, raid rallying and sportscar racing, Peugeot entered F1 (albeit without Todt), and Boudy designed a new V10 engine which was raced in 1994 by McLaren. Peugeot went on to supply Jordan and ultimately Prost Grand Prix. In 1999 sold its F1 operations to Asiatech and Boudy went back to Renault.
It is anticipated that the prototype engine will be on the dyno in Paris by the end of this year, the project having begun as soon as the FIA World Motor Sport Council fixed the 2013 rules in December last year.
It is not yet known what the engine will be called in F1, but the plan is to run a commercial operation, similar to Cosworth, but we hear that P.U.R.E has big ambitions to introduce similar technologies to the marine and aviation worlds.
From what we can gather at the moment the engines will be designed at Trappes but manufactured at Mecachrome’s Aubigny-sur-Nere facility, which currently works closely with Renault Sport F1, which is located in Viry-Chatillon.
The word is that P.U.R.E has asked Robin Southwell, the head of EADS UK to be its chairman. He is a heavy-hitter in the aerospace and defence world
(Taken from Joe Saward's blog of May 4, 2011)
