Toto Wolff, CEO of Mercedes, warns that any attempt to balance engines could result in “catastrophe” for F1.
As Autosport reported last week, the FIA has scheduled discussions for the F1 Commission meeting this weekend. To determine whether engine performance has to be balanced to support Alpine supplier Renault.
As a result of F1’s engine freeze. It is believed that the Renault engine may be up to 30 horsepower less powerful than the best of the competition.
The Power Unit Advisory Committee for Formula One will now review the situation to see what needs to be done to close what it calls a “notable” deficit.
The FIA stated that the best way to handle the F1 engine equalization issue was to throttle down the performance. The top power units to make them equal. Rather than helping out those who had fallen behind, the last time the problem came up.
However F1, Toto Wolff has made it plain that any steps that would affect everyone’s performance would “bankrupt”. F1 meritocracy as the evaluation process gets underway.
Wolff explained,
“Entertainment follows sport, and why the sport is so credible is because you have just got to work hard to be successful. If you’re falling back as an engine supplier, and your engine isn’t as performant as others, that’s obviously everybody’s problem. But at the same time, with a frozen engine, we don’t want to lose out on giving someone opportunities. But it needs to be done in a meritocratic way. And, for that, we have a rule in the 2026 power unit regulations that if one power-unit will drop out of 3% below the top power unit, then the teams would sit down in good faith and debate what could be done.”
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