Pure prepare for 2014 with move to Toyota factory

From 2014 Formula One teams will run with 1.6-litre V6 engines.

This is a change from the current 2.4-litre V8s that teams are running this season and an alteration to the previously proposed 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbo units which Ferrari, Mercedes and Cosworth all objected to last year.

With engineer manufacturers restricted to only acting as suppliers to three teams [including their own], that leaves a gap in the market once engines manufactured by the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault have been snapped up.

Over the past couple of seasons that gap has been bridged by Cosworth who have supplied the lower ranked teams, but from 2014, Formula One teams will have the option to switch to a new customer engine supply company called Propulsion Universelle et Recuperation d'Energie or thankfully PURE for short.

This company is headed by Former BAR team principal Craig Pollock with Jean-Pierre Boudy formerly of Peugeot, former Renault F1 managing director Christian Contzen and aerospace expert Robin Southwell all being involved during the development process.

PURE have been working on the development of their new customer engines for over a year and their development is so advanced that if there was a quick change in regulations [which there will not be] they would be ready as early as 2013.

The next part of their preparations sees the setup move to Toyota Motorsport's facilities in Cologne.

Until now PURE has been operating in France, but a deal struck with the Japanese car maker will see them further boost their development with the project split between the two locations.

'The situation is that we have signed an exclusive agreement with TMG, It's been signed for quite a long time, no question about it, and Toyota are currently preparing the front office complex that's linked to the test benches and to the assembly units.' Pollock told Autosport Magazine.

'So we can basically have all the parts that we are currently manufacturing delivered to our assembly facility so that the prototypes will be built actually at the Toyota facility, which will become the PURE facility.'

'The reasoning behind it is quite simple, We obviously would've looked at constructing our own facilities and constructing our own test benches. There is a cost factor and there is a time factor.

'Toyota, they've got the absolute best test benches I think in the world for a Formula 1 engine. They have the most up to date, and have so many of them that for me it was logical to go down that road, because we should be ready to be on the bench in the end of July.'

PURE is yet to confirm any agreements with any teams for 2014. They had previously been linked with a partnership to McLaren, but that was categorically denied by McLaren.