[F1] Mercedes accepts engine unfreeze??

Horner says Mercedes accept engine unfreeze needed to 'introduce competition'
Renault engine blamed for Red Bull's lack of competitiveness this season




An unfreeze of F1’s engines has moved a step closer according to Christian Horner, who says Mercedes have accepted the “need to provide a window to introduce competition.”

Red Bull relinquished their Constructors’ Championship in Russia for the first time since 2009 to the Silver Arrows, with the new hybrid Renault engine taking much of the blame for their lack of competitiveness.

Horner believes his team are losing a second per lap to top Mercedes customer team Williams, let along the works team, while Renault, Ferrari and 2015 returnees Honda are all keen to see the regulations relaxed, with development work allowed in-season.

The Team Principal doesn’t believe, though, that Bernie Ecclestone’s suggestion that the technical regulations need a complete revamp is practical.

“In terms of technical and sporting regulations I think they are pretty fixed,” he told reporters after Sunday’s United States Grand Prix.

“There was a very encouraging meeting yesterday between the engine manufacturers and Mercedes have accepted that they need to provide a window of opportunity to the others to introduce competition. But I cannot see beyond that any real changes to the technical or sporting regulations because of course every time you change it has a detrimental effect on costs.

“Mercedes participated in a constructors’ discussion so they haven’t actually agreed to anything as yet. But there was a very constructive discussion yesterday which hopefully will see a solution in place in the very near future.”

Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo has been the only non-Mercedes driver to win a race in 2014 and Horner doesn’t believe it would take much for them to be able to regularly challenge the dominant German marque.

“When you look at the deficit in power, to actually be taking on and beating Williams, it is at least a second that we are giving away in horsepower at the moment. So if we can just find some of that deficit, even half it, we should be able to start to race with or put the pressure on Mercedes.”

Red Bull are currently second in the Constructors’ Championship, 245 points behind Mercedes and 125 points ahead of Williams.





Following meetings over the United States Grand Prix weekend, a fresh proposal to allow the freeze to be relaxed was tabled in a bid to ease Mercedes' resistance to change.




But high-level sources suggest the team may accept the compromise for 2015 if it can be confident budgets will not increase dramatically.

It is now evaluating the proposal in more detail to understand its implications before fresh talks are scheduled to take place at this weekend's Brazilian GP.

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff said:



HOW THE FREEZE WORKS

During discussions to frame the new turbo V6 regulations, an engine freeze was agreed to prevent costs getting out of control.

Once a power unit design was lodged with the FIA on February 28 2014, changes were only permitted during the season for "reliability, safety or cost-saving reasons".

A limited number of modifications are still allowed each winter. The scope of the change is limited by a 'token' system related to the individual components on the engine and its hybrid systems.
Mercedes 2014 V6


The entire power unit is made up of 66 'tokens', which are weighted individually between one and three depending on how important they are.

Ahead of 2015, five of these tokens are 'frozen' completely but there is scope to review the 61 remaining items if a manufacturer feels improvements are needed.

However, it cannot change all the parts. Only 32 tokens - approximately 48 per cent of the power unit - can be used for 2015.

Longer term, the restrictions increase each year. So for 2016, 38 per cent of the engine can be changed, going down to 30 per cent in 2017, 23 per cent in 2018 and just five per cent for 2019 and '20.

The proposal to lift the freeze is not designed to allow unlimited development, but to give manufacturers a bigger window to make changes.

So if, for example, they do not use up their full quota of tokens this winter, then under the latest proposal there will be a window to use 13 tokens early next season to introduce a new power unit in July.