AMT plans lightweight engines for Arrows

Asia Motor Technologies, who recently purchased Peugeot's Formula One engine development group, is reportedly planning to utilize an extremely lightweight engine in 2001.

One of the limiting factors for reducing engine weight is the durability of the engine; lighter engines imply even lighter and thinner components, and correspondingly reduced engine life.

While current F1 engines are designed to last for some 500 miles, AMT's new engines will be intended to be replaced after every race or test session. As a result, AMT will need to build some 200 engines, or approximately four times as many as are normally required for an F1 season.

Enrique Scalabroni, AMT's technical director, has apparently been working on the new engine concept for nearly a year. With AMT's purchase of Peugeot F1 new complete, the development is shifting to the ex-Peugeot facility at Velizy, outside of Paris.

AMT has signed an exclusive agreement to supply engines to Arrows only for the next season.