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Nov
9th

F1: Mercedes rivals warn ‘freeze’ could end completely

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Adapted from GMM

With progress also having stalled over the small teams' touted 'fighting fund', Toto Wolff emerged from a big team bosses meeting at Interlagos on Saturday with little news.

"Nothing was agreed on anything," he told reporters.

"The situation is unchanged on everything, the money side, engine side."

As ever, there is always more to it in formula one.

For now, Mercedes' lack of agreement simply means nothing will change for 2015, as warned by Wolff as he departed the Interlagos meeting.

But more serious games are at play.

It emerges that while unanimity is required for 2015, a simple majority vote is enough for a year later -- and Mercedes, Renault and incoming supplier Honda obviously have the numbers on their side.

Toto Wolff Mercedes F1 Brazil
"Nothing was agreed on anything," says Toto Wolff (Photo: WRI2)

"Mercedes' opponents are threatening that engine development will be completely opened up (in 2016)," Germany's Auto Motor und Sport reports.

An insider declared: "Then there will be war."

With Caterham and Marussia already gone, and struggling Lotus, Force India and Sauber now complaining loudly about costs, opening up engine development would be a major move for F1.

"The fact is that with the new (V6) engine, which from a technology perspective is a great thing, the costs were passed on to all the teams," Lotus' Gerard Lopez argues.

He says Lotus alone spent up to $60 million on buying a Renault engine in 2014 and developing the complex systems around it.

"If we unfreeze the engines now, which is the next topic that is coming up ... at the end of the day not taking decisions has had an immediate impact on the sport in the last couple of weeks with two teams disappearing," Lopez warned.


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