The debate as to whether the FIA needs to look at re-equalising the engine performances of the F1 manufacturers despite the supposed freeze on development is increasing, with Mike Gascoyne saying that the governing body needs to be careful.
The need for re-equalisation has been put forward as a discussion point within the Formula One Teams' Association after it became apparent that the Mercedes V8 was now quite significantly faster than some of the weaker engines of the likes of Toyota and Renault.
Should any change be seen to be necessary, the FIA have somewhat oddly said that this would be achieved by de-tuning the Mercedes engine, rather than an earlier precendent where the engine freeze was broken in order to allow Renault to re-turn their struggling powerplant.
But with F1's silly-sounding Engine Working Group preparing to begin their evaluation of the current state of play with F1's engine suppliers, in an attempt to decide if action is needed, new Lotuis technical boss Mike Gascoyne has said that the group needs to take into account other issues than just power, especially given that the new spec Cosworth engine that the four new teams will use in 2010 is yet to run on-track.
"A lot of factors need looking at," Gascoyne said, possibly while thoughtfully stroking his little beard, "We for example are generally happy with the overall performance of the Cosworth, but there are concerns about its fuel consumption levels and its endurance especially if the numbers of races each engine has to do increases."
Meanwhile, Ross Brawn, one of the team owners reliant on the Mercedes engine, has talked about the need for rather dull talking in order to come up with a solution. He says he cannot understand why de-tuning would be an option.
"I think we need facts and figures and the FIA are the only people who can really make a reasonable assessment of it," he said, rather too sensibly, "When this occurred last time the manufacturers got together and gave Renault and Honda the ability to rehomologate their engine. I don't see why things have dramatically changed from then.
"I know the Mercedes engine has not dramatically changed from there, so the work that everybody did over the winter, nothing has changed since then. Our specification of the engine now is exactly the same as at the beginning of the season, but our car is working better at some circuits rather than others."
Backing up his opinion was the Mercedes motorsport boss Norbert Haug, who too time out from perfecting his belly laugh to claim that he could not see a need for any changes, which wasn't really surprising given that his company is currently making the best engines.
"The FIA has nothing to criticise about our engine," he whined, "Every measurement, every step we make is properly documented, is green lighted by the FIA.
"We suffered from an engine that was sometimes not reliable enough and we changed it into a good and reliable engine which does not mean that we can never have problems. That is the name of the game in Formula 1, isn't it? This is very important.
"If you have a problem and you need to discuss what to do to balance it out then I'm happy to talk. I'm absolutely sure that there will be a decent and professional and factually-oriented discussion about it."
Mercedes currently supply Brawn GP, McLaren and Force India with their engines, with Red Bull looking to become a fourth Mercedes-powered team in 2010. Mercedes-powered cars have won 10 of the 14 races so far this season.
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
