In a supposed bid to cut costs, Bernie Ecclestone is to urge F1's Strategy Group to switch back to the 2.4 litre V8 powerplants used until 2013.

Never a fan of the new formula, Ecclestone is still pushing for the return of the units used in recent years, and he's citing cost as the reason. That and Mercedes obvious advantage at present.

"We can all put our money together and have a wager that Mercedes will win the championship next year which is not really the sort of thing we are looking for," he told an invited group of journalists, including Christian Sylt, at his Knightsbridge HQ. "I have been proposing and am going to propose that we go back to a normally aspirated engine with some hybrid bits built into it.

"The manufacturers will have to call it a 'McLaren hybrid', 'Ferrari hybrid' or a 'Williams hybrid' so that it will get across the message," he continued. "They are hybrids now but nobody tells anybody. It's the best-kept secret actually. What this engine is for. What was it designed for and what have we achieved? It is a fantastic bit of engineering.

"People have built these racing engines and anyone that is currently building the engines we currently have, it would be a bit of a dream for them to build a normally aspirated engine and develop it to about 1000 horsepower which is what I believe we want."

Asked if this would drive up the costs, he simply replies "No". Asked if teams would be allowed to use the pre-2014 units he said: "They can do what they like. If you say 'this is the engine, this is the cubic capacity and we want to develop some hybrid thing, something like the KERSs system' it is up to them."

When it is pointed out that it is the new, environmentally aware, formula which kept Renault in the sport, and has encouraged Honda's return, Ecclestone isn't convinced. "I don't know whether that's why they came back to be honest with you," he says. "I really don't know."

He reveals that the matter will be discussed at the next meeting of the Strategy Group on December 18, and claims that a number of teams are in favour.

"Well we have six so if we have four teams want to do that that's ten," he says. "There's 18 votes so that's the majority."

Asked if such a move might drive Mercedes to leave the sport, he replies: "I think they will do that whenever it suits them anyway because we have noticed in the past the manufacturers do that but I would be surprised if they did."

Seeking to bring back the V8s for 2016, he asks the assembled journos if they are happy with the new formula, one replies: "I don't think we can go back. It's an admission of defeat to go back."

"Who has been defeated?" asks Ecclestone

"The sport," comes the response.

Whilst keen to revert to the old power units, indeed anything other than what we have at present, Ecclestone doesn't appear to have fully thought it through, he's even unsure whether the sport should move back to V8s or even V10s. "It's up to them," he says.

Asked if he has consulted Mercedes, since it is the engine manufacturer that has the most to lose, he replies: "I have always thought, and I have been reasonably successful at getting things done, and I have always thought that maybe this would be a bit of an uphill struggle to convince Mercedes and honestly we shouldn't ask them. It would need to be them volunteering."

"So are you going to ask them or not?" he is asked

"What could they say? 'The other people are useless, we are great so we're happy'."

Asked how the FIA will react, Ecclestone admits that Jean Todt is unlikely to be happy. When asked why this might be, he replies: "Because Jean is the one who trumpeted the new engines. He is not going to say let's get rid of them."

It's pointed out that (under Todt) the FIA isn't as influential in the rule-making as it once was.

"Well they sold the rights," reveals Ecclestone. "The Strategy Group that we have got. We made a contribution of $40 million a year to buy that actually.

"So you are saying that they sold the rights to rule-making?" he is asked

"No, they sold the rights to have this new group set up in the way we thought it should be set up. We were really helping out the FIA because it was in deficit and looking to get some money somehow."

Despite all that's gone before, Ecclestone then admits that should the engine manufacturers bring down the price of the current units he might be willing to keep them.

"Absolutely," he says. "Keep what we have got. We have got used to having Formula One with no noise."

Clearly, even after 19 races under the new rules, he's still very unhappy about the sound of F1 2014. Asked if he still dislikes it, he replies: "Yes and all the promoters as well as most of the people that attend the races.

"The trouble is that when this engine was thought up nobody thought about the side effects."