Renault Sport's Rob White insists the new formula of engines for 2014 are still going to be "special" and has confirmed they will make a lot of noise.
In 2014 F1 cars will be powered by 1.6 litre V6 turbo engines with much more powerful energy recovery systems. The new units are expected to be just as powerful as the current V8s and, although they will rev to 15,000rpm instead of 18,000rpm, White is confident they will still attract attention.
"There will be some differences in how the 2014 engines sound compared to the current engines," he told ESPNF1 in an exclusive interview. "I guess when we moved years ago to the other direction, from turbocharged to naturally aspirated engines, there was a difference that we got used to.
"The introduction of turbochargers and reduction of revs will result in less noise. However, it's extremely important to understand that these are going to be special engines that will make lot of noise, which would be a sort of a success factor for this formula."
And despite cutting the cylinder count from eight to six and reducing the rpm, White believes the engine manufacturers will face a bigger challenge with the 2014 units than they did when designing the current V8s.
"We should not simply talk about engines but power units... the 1.6 litre V6 turbocharged engines, bigger KERS unit, electric power in the pits etc. It is something of an unknown. The new power units for 2014 are definitely more complex and going to be a bigger challenge."
Renault Sport currently supplies three F1 teams with engines and will add Williams to its list of customers in 2012. White is confident it can maintain its customer base in 2014, despite more competition from new manufacturer PURE, and insists its rivals will have to fight over supplying the other two thirds of the grid.
"We don't yet know who will provide engines in 2014," he added. "These are big engineering projects to be accomplished. We expect to be at the first race in 2014 with a Renault engine. We expect to have four teams in 2014.
"I guess other people have expressed opinion on how many teams they would like to have. If we assume there will be 12 teams in 2014 then the remaining eight teams will be shared by other people. Of course, knowing Formula One what it is, things may change a bit between now and then. The fundamental thing of course is that nobody has yet made any formal announcements as to who they will work with in 2014. It will become clear over the coming months."
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