When Max Mosley mentioned the idea of a standard engine in Formula 1 last week, it was widely believed to be nothing more than a hot poker up the backside of the teams; a hurry up to finalise cost cutting measures. But today they’ve only gone and invited tenders to supply a standard engine for three years from 2010, then clarified it a bit.

The plan appears to be this: one supplier designs and builds an engine; teams can then either take that complete engine, or – the clarification – build their own engine from that exact design. Bernie Ecclestone said he can’t see why the car manufacturers would leave as a result, because they’d be saving money.

Let’s take Ecclestone’s point first. The idea of a standard engine is to eliminate performance advantages, which are exactly what manufacturers want to demonstrate. Quite apart from that: is, for example, Ferrari going be willing to race with a Renault engine? For reasons of branding, marketing and simple pride, it seems deeply unlikely. The option to assemble it themselves is an utter irrelevance, unless I’ve misunderstood.

Whether it matters is a quite different question. Without engine development, teams wouldn’t necessarily need the budgets of the manufacturer teams, so their dropping out could be a good thing.

But without the manufacturer teams, some of the gravitas might be be lost. Force India isn’t quite as recognisable or highly regarded a name as Ferrari; then again, maybe Red Bull is, and the likes of McLaren and Williams have serious racing pedigree.

The IndyCar Series has a standard engine and chassis, but still attracts top sponsors and teams, and it is they who provide the recognisable names, not the Honda engine or Dallara chassis. That said, IndyCar Series is trying to get more engine manufacturers involved from 2011.

So what would Formula 1 look like with a standard engine? The best case scenario would be a dozen non-manufacturer teams, with household names as title sponsors funding the more modest budgets. But for sponsors, part of the current appeal of Formula 1 is the association with a premium brand like Ferrari. It’s hard to say which sponsors would remain interested in Formula 1, but it’s safe to say that it wouldn’t be all of them.

If Formula 1 budgets dropped as a result, the glamour – and the appeal to some fans – would be wiped out. Without intense competition from car manufacturers, the appeal to another section of fans would be wiped out.

There’s also the risk that if car manufacturers lost interest in Formula 1, they would – as has been threatened repeatedly – form their own championship. As demonstrated by the split of open wheel racing in North America in the 1990s, and the eventual unification of Champ Car and IndyCar this year, it’s not likely that this would be a good thing for anyone.

So what’s the conclusion? A standard engine would be a huge risk, with a variety of possible outcomes, under which Formula 1 could flourish, or shrivel and die. But I don’t think the standard engine will become a reality, so it’s probably all rather academic.