Renault supports Ferrari for a relaxation of the engine freeze
Renault Sport F1 has officially taken a stance in favor of revising the regulations to allow engine manufacturers to make improvements to their power units during the season.
At the beginning of the week, Renault Sport F1, through the voice of its general manager Cyril Abiteboul, expressed support for a relaxation of the engine freeze rules, similar to Ferrari a few days ago.
Currently, engine manufacturers cannot modify their power units during the season. The engines are frozen from a deadline date set at the end of winter, before the first race of the calendar. Marco Mattiacci, the director of the Scuderia, hopes to establish a compromise to allow modifications during the season. He is supported in this by Abiteboul, who doesn’t forget the issue of costs.
« I have already seen the difficulty for some teams, and I think it could be the majority of teams in F1 currently, to pay for the cost of technology from the current regulations, so I think we need to be a little bit sensitive, » explained the Frenchman to Autosport.
But there should be a system that allows performance to converge rather than diverge. I know that no one wants to force the sport to go in a certain direction [increasing costs], but it’s a sport that needs to be a sustainable business for all stakeholders. So we could open up more [the rules regarding engines], as long as they are heading in the right direction for the different suppliers. [Performance] must converge, from my point of view, he adds.
The current season is marked by a global domination of Mercedes engines, considered more efficient and more reliable than their competitors, although Renault is not far behind, having secured three victories thanks to Daniel Ricciardo’s Red Bull RB10. The general manager of RSF1 believes that a higher-level and more competitive field would be desirable, but currently the situation prevents engine manufacturers from fully exploiting their capabilities.
« It is true that with each regulatory change, there is a period during which profitability and return on investment are quite high. And it is true that the regulation does not allow us to deploy everything we have on the drawing board. We have a system that allows us to make quite a few changes, because 48% of the power unit will be modifiable next year. And we intend to change 48% of the power unit. »
