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Mercedes have enjoyed a big power advantage over other engine makers Renault and Ferrari in Formula 1's maiden year of hybrid turbo regulations and there are already fears that Mercedes AMG will again dominate next season.
The current technical regulation puts a “freeze” on engine development from February of one year to the next. Work can also be done out of season and then homologated.
Mercedes, which will supply engines to its own team [Mercedes AMG Petronas] next year plus Force India, Williams and Lotus, claims it would not be fair to let rivals Ferrari and Renault work on their engines by ‘unfreezing' the rules.
“You open up a can of worms,” Mercedes' Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 in a recent interview.
“People sometimes think it's simple - it's not simple, it's very complicated if you change the rules because some very intelligent people have created those rules that an engine is being frozen by the end of February to make sure that everybody has the same,” he explained.
“If you're having three customers, including ourselves four customers, eight engines, we can't supply them at the same time if we're having an in-season development. It's obviously a difference for Honda who are having one team, for Ferrari who are having three teams including themselves.
Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci has argued that F1's struggling smaller teams would benefit from unfreezing the engine.
“I think that honestly, from our point of view, there is not a cost increase. The other argument is that if I had the possibility to upgrade my engines maybe the teams I supply [Sauber and Marussia] would have scored points and have extra revenues. For a small team not to have the possibility to catch up is much more dramatic than for a big team,” Mattiacci declared.
Formula 1 is gearing up for a crucial vote before the end of the season with a proposal to allow some in-season performance upgrades to the V6 engines to be voted on by the F1 Commission.
However, a unanimous vote is required for the motion to be accepted and while a majority agreed to the changes at a meeting of the sport's Strategy Group in Sochi, Mercedes AMG, Williams and Lotus voted against it.
The current technical regulation puts a “freeze” on engine development from February of one year to the next. Work can also be done out of season and then homologated.
Mercedes, which will supply engines to its own team [Mercedes AMG Petronas] next year plus Force India, Williams and Lotus, claims it would not be fair to let rivals Ferrari and Renault work on their engines by ‘unfreezing' the rules.
“You open up a can of worms,” Mercedes' Toto Wolff told Sky Sports F1 in a recent interview.
“People sometimes think it's simple - it's not simple, it's very complicated if you change the rules because some very intelligent people have created those rules that an engine is being frozen by the end of February to make sure that everybody has the same,” he explained.
“If you're having three customers, including ourselves four customers, eight engines, we can't supply them at the same time if we're having an in-season development. It's obviously a difference for Honda who are having one team, for Ferrari who are having three teams including themselves.
Ferrari boss Marco Mattiacci has argued that F1's struggling smaller teams would benefit from unfreezing the engine.
“I think that honestly, from our point of view, there is not a cost increase. The other argument is that if I had the possibility to upgrade my engines maybe the teams I supply [Sauber and Marussia] would have scored points and have extra revenues. For a small team not to have the possibility to catch up is much more dramatic than for a big team,” Mattiacci declared.
Formula 1 is gearing up for a crucial vote before the end of the season with a proposal to allow some in-season performance upgrades to the V6 engines to be voted on by the F1 Commission.
However, a unanimous vote is required for the motion to be accepted and while a majority agreed to the changes at a meeting of the sport's Strategy Group in Sochi, Mercedes AMG, Williams and Lotus voted against it.