The first of the naturally-aspirated V10s, which would become the formula’s only layout, began to appear in F1 in 1989, after the banning of turbocharged engines, which had dominated the sport in the 1980s. Honda’s screaming V10 would rev to around 13,500rpm while Renault began powering Williams for the first time, its V10 winding the needle round to 12,500rpm, both giving an insight into what was to come for the next 16 years.
After Honda exited the sport at the end of the 1991 season Renault’s V10 would dominate. Its V10s now revved to north of 14,000rpm and would power the winners of every championship but one from 1992 to 1997. So dominant would the V10 layout become, that even Ferrari – attached to 12-cylinder engines for almost its entire F1 history – made the switch in 1996.
From 2000, with costs soaring and the battle for engine supremacy beginning to get out of hand, the FIA stepped in. Reducing the engine size allowed to 3.0-litres (from 3.5) and mandating that only V10s may be used. Far from stifling a creative and beautiful era, if anything it accelerated the arms race, as manufacturers fought to produce engines with more and more power, revving higher and higher.