As Autosport revealed last week, the FIA tabled discussions at this weekend’s F1 Commission meeting to evaluate whether action needed to be taken in balancing the performance of engines to help out Alpine supplier Renault.
It is understood that the Renault engine could be as much as 30hp down on the best of the opposition, with no prospect of closing the gap because of F1’s engine freeze.
The matter has now been passed to F1’s Power Unit Advisory Committee for it to evaluate what needs to done and close what it says is a ‘notable’ gap.
The last time the F1 engine equalisation topic came up, the FIA suggested that the best way to deal with it was to peg back the performance of the top power units to make them equal, rather than help out anyone who had fallen behind.
But as the evaluation process begins, Wolff has made it clear that any actions that would impact the performance of everyone would ‘bankrupt’ F1’s meritocracy.
“Entertainment follows sport, and why the sport is so credible is because you have just got to work hard to be successful,” explained Wolff.
“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.
Source: Autosport