‘Disaster’ warning issued with Toto Wolff reportedly blocking Renault engine fix
Toto Wolff may well be the thorn in Renault’s side as the French engine manufacturer tries to make their power unit as good as the others.
The results of the F1 Commission ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix confirmed what Renault had long suspected, their engine is down on power compared to the ones made by Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.
With power units frozen until 2026, an olive branch was extended from a rather surprising source in the form of Christian Horner who suggested he would be open to allowing the problem to be fixed but it seems that is not a universal opinion amongst the team bosses.
Toto Wolff warns of “declaration of bankruptcy for Formula 1”
尽管已经与他们的大部分时间their working relationship, Horner opened the door to some potential “discussions” with Renault about bringing their engine up to scratch.
“I think it’s a matter of seeing, what are the deficits?” he said ahead of the F1 Commission meeting.
“I think the FIA have all of the data, and they should present exactly what the differences are.
“I think it’d be fascinating for everybody to see. If there is a deficit under homologation, it’s something that we should be sensitive about.
“Otherwise, you’re locked in for two years, so I wouldn’t be averse to a sensible discussion.”
But after the meeting had taken place, Horner’s Mercedes counterpart Wolff said to do that would to risk the sport.
“Once we have a common understanding of what the missing performance is, we need to discuss how many more dyno hours and jokers can be given,” he told media including PlanetF1.com. “That’s something we need to discuss.
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“But touching any kind of fuel flow or BoP (Balance of Performance) is a disaster and a declaration of bankruptcy for Formula 1. It shouldn’t even be talked about.”
New interim team principal and former head of the power unit development Bruno Famin meanwhile refuted the idea that the engines were significantly down on their rivals.
“引擎并不像你说的,所以下来的“Famin再保险plied to a reporter. “It’s not the best engine for sure. We made huge steps between ’21 on ’22 but still not the best engine.
“I don’t think the powertrain is so down that we cannot improve the package. The goal is really to improve our package.”
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