Tech specs?

[dj_bytedisaster]

As far as engines, I assume that if a team had the resources and wanted to build its own engines, it could. Just as Ferrari and Mercedes do. I have no idea if F1 has minimum supply limits, in case other teams would like to lease engines though. You used to see various steps or versions of engines being leased... customer engines vs. factory engines. I believe that practice has now been banned.

As far as I remember, there is a ruling that an engine manufacturer must be able to supply a certain number of teams (3 ??), but it isn't a must, that's why Cosworth supplies only one team - nobody else took them up on the offer. Same goes for Honda 2015. So far only one team will run Honda engines, but Honda could not refuse to sign up a second team on the grounds of wanting to be an exclusive partner to McLaren. They could however make their conditions (price) so unfavourable that no other team wants them - that's a different thing
I don't think - technically speaking - that any team builds his own engine. In the case of Merc, they are built by Mercedes AMG High Perfomance Powertrains, which is a completely different company within the Daimler AG empire. Without knowing the structure at Ferrari, I would suppose it is the same for them. Considering they have an own company for running older F1 cars (Corse Clienti), I would suppose the engine department is also separated from the core team in hierarchy.

[AndyL]

So far only one team will run Honda engines, but Honda could not refuse to sign up a second team on the grounds of wanting to be an exclusive partner to McLaren. They could however make their conditions (price) so unfavourable that no other team wants them - that's a different thing

I doubt they would do that though, I'm sure they'll be keen to sign up one or more customer teams if possible to spread their development cost.

[Mark]

Yes they have to be prepared to supply a number of teams if called upon to do so. Which isn't helpful really as it's a barrier to new entrants. Having said that, back in the day you'd often get engine manufacturers just supplying a single team, whereas now with most supplying several it's more of a level playing field.

[Jag_Warrior]

From most of the posts I've seen, I believe Captain Chaos is more of an IRL/Indy Car fan. I'm not sure when he became a fan, but from a technical perspective, I believe he would have greatly enjoyed the old CART days. Back then, somewhat like NASCAR now, a team could buy a customer car or build its own (Penske, Gurney, Galles, etc.). A team could buy a customer car and heavily modify it to meet its own wants & needs (what most teams did). It's safe to say that no two Reynards, Lolas or Swifts were exactly alike from team to team - because they didn't have to be. Engine manufacturers were also somewhat free to try different things along the way - such as the Toyota "single side turbo" concept for super speedway races.

F1 may not allow things like 6-wheeled cars any longer. But the passive DRS being developed by Lotus and Mercedes is confirmation that innovation in Formula One is still alive, if not well. In the IRL/Indy Car, it just doesn't exist any longer. We used to have something of a version of F1 here, now we have a version of GP2.