Tost: FIA Should Freeze Mercedes Engine Development

[Bethonie Waring]

Toro Rosso boss Franz Tost has called for the FIA to freeze Mercedes engine development to give Renault, Ferrari, and Honda a fighting chance at catching up with the manufacturers.

Mercedes have been winning the engine battle since the V6 era began back in 2014. Though their competitors have been slowly making steps towards them, they’ve hardly made a dent in Mercedes’ domination.

Tost believes the drastic move of freezing the Mercedes development may need to take place if the domination continues.

“I hope that earlier or later there will be a power unit parity because this is not the case currently,” he told Autosport.

“I hope Renault will catch up, especially because I don’t know what’s going on with Ferrari. We need Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari fighting for the championship at least.​

“If the power unit parity is not coming then normally the FIA should come up with a regulation to freeze it. I would freeze the power unit from Mercedes, the others should catch up and then they freeze all of them.”​

Tost said he would allow teams to be able to continue developing the battery even after the engine development freeze.

Some elements of the power unit have already been frozen, and more things are set to be frozen next season, including the minimum weight of the entire Energy Recovery System.

Tost also called again for the championship organisers to clamp down on costs.

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Do you agree or should teams be allowed to develop? Let us know in the comments below!

 

[ears]

Yeah and Adrian Newey should have to design everyone's car.

And Red Bull and Ferrari should finance every team's car development.

And Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso should drive every car in the field.

Never heard anything so proposterous.

 

[DND]

Maybe a trophy for everyone too. Wow! There are spec series he can be a part of.

 

[thewarmer]

Pathetic you can not tell me that the likes of Honda . Renault who were the first to bring turbos into F1 & Ferrari . have to have a band on engine development put on Mercedes to catch up.
Did Mercedes ever ask for such a thing when they returned to F1 first of all has an engine supplier & later has a team, no they just got on with it.
They just need to face facts , when Mercedes take any sport serious they tend to dominate & that has been part of their History since day one.
the best will always rise to the top that is a plain has day fact , it is the other teams need to raise their game.

 

[Riblo]

true but sheer domination by only one team is what is dooming F1 (withraces in those pathetic Tilkedromes built into the middle of nowhere)...
F1 isdying and if Liberty Media wont do anything serious in few years we will not see anymore any F1 race...

 

[Bethonie Waring]

true but sheer domination by only one team is what is dooming F1 (withraces in those pathetic Tilkedromes built into the middle of nowhere)...
F1 isdying and if Liberty Media wont do anything serious in few years we will not see anymore any F1 race...

But surely it's not fair to punish Mercedes for getting things right?

 

[Riblo]

But surely it's not fair to punish Mercedes for getting things right?

Yes but if doing things right is gonna destroy the series... I dont know what will Liberty Media do...

 

[Rui F. Martins]

One of the teams is doing a better job in engine development than the others, and should be penalized for that? i find that ridiculous, what's next, having every car using the same engine and chassi for performance balance? why not make it a single maker competition?

 

[Paul Glover]

I know it's Torro Rosso, but it's a bit of sour grapes here for me. I don't hear anyone making such rediculous requests when Red Bull were leading the pack.

 

[Hygge]

But didn't Christian Horner say when Red Bull was dominant "Please punish us for being so dominant so all other teams can catch up". Or maybe he didn't. My memory is so bad nowadays.

 

[Andrew Harper]

Ok, from one side I understand where he's coming from (even though he's nuts...)

Freezing tech should only ever be used (in my view) to save costs. Not to allow the others too catch up. Mercedes did their sums right and the others didn't. It's as simple as that

 

[burrito]

It feels like some of these people making these headlines are too young to remember when F1 was not just an aerodynamic formula...

Ever since 2008 (or so) the engines have been frozen and that isn't F1. Convergence should not be forced, it should develop via the law of diminishing returns and a stable rule set. Mercedes started earlier than Renault and Ferrari got it's sums wrong and sacrificed engine for aerodynamic gain in 2014. All three manufacturers were present in F1 at the start of the previous rule set (2006 V8's) and since 2008 they have been frozen (apart from software and clever tricks with EBD's) so I can't see how starting too late on the next regulations can be excused when the (at the time) present engines were frozen. It's not like the chassis problem the teams face every new regulation set, they have to try and split resources between current and next regulation.

Just Red Bull (via Torro Rosso) whining again.

Edit: supposedly the HP difference between Mercedes and Honda is around 50HP in race trim. If you look back at 1991, considered a classic F1 season, the top engine, a V12 Honda produced 780HP while the lowest performing engine, a V8 Judd produced 640HP. All those figures are estimates but they are well in the ballpark. The difference between Mercedes and Honda is roughly 5%, the difference between Honda and Judd was roughly 18%

 

[Martin Maaskant]

Assuming Tost said that (reporters have the tendency to twist words for headlines) then that is the biggest BS I heard. Mercedes did their homework better then Ferrari and Renault. So if they want to close the gap they should work harder and/or smarter. I agree that if one team dominates the sport that is not good but solving that is a bit more complex then just an engine freeze for one manufacturer. I personally think that Liberty should take action on the way the money is divided in F1. What I understand they are just doing that so just wait and see what that brings.

 

[UMC 22]

Maybe if they were to put more time into development and less time into whining, there would be performance parity. You can't penalise a team for doing well within the current regulations. It's a ridiculous suggestion and if it becomes a 'thing', teams will quit. We all know what the real issues are in F1 and have done for a long, long time so I really don't get why very little has been done.

 

[Nick Hill]

I am sick to death of watching Merc 1-2's, but this "solution" is BS.

Merc should be rewarded for nailing the spec out of the gate...But the fact that their advantage has persisted for all these years indicates something broken with the system (it's no more Mercs fault than it is Renault's, Honda's, etc).

 

[Jeff]

true but sheer domination by only one team is what is dooming F1 (withraces in those pathetic Tilkedromes built into the middle of nowhere)...
F1 isdying and if Liberty Media wont do anything serious in few years we will not see anymore any F1 race...

People have been sayin f1 is dying for many years.

It is not, get over it.

 

[GP20]

That's not a racing spirit.

Remove all the assistances in Formula 1 and you will see that engine does not all.

 

[BoogerMac]

Maybe if they were to put more time into development and less time into whining, there would be performance parity. You can't penalise a team for doing well within the current regulations. It's a ridiculous suggestion and if it becomes a 'thing', teams will quit. We all know what the real issues are in F1 and have done for a long, long time so I really don't get why very little has been done.

Where is Toro Rosso (or any other mid-to-low tier team) going to get a top tier budget? The underlying problem here is cost, not lack of effort and time spent whining. AMG can throw millions towards development of "high speed, never fail, platinum plated lug nuts" if they wanted to, while other teams can barely afford to put a car on the track.

 

[burrito]

Where is Toro Rosso (or any other mid-to-low tier team) going to get a top tier budget? The underlying problem here is cost, not lack of effort and time spent whining. AMG can throw millions towards development of "high speed, never fail, platinum plated lug nuts" if they wanted to, while other teams can barely afford to put a car on the track.

Thats a different issue all together. Notice Franz didn't say we can't afford to "......."

I'm not saying I disagree but that's a wider issue that affects competitiveness. The issue this article covers is about reducing the competitiveness of an engine supplier artificially.

 

[timson72]

Another red bull team moaning,my dad works at Brixworth and they are working ridiculous hours to be that dominate.