Breaking news
Formula 1
Horner fears F1 engine rules talks will change 'nothing'
Red Bull boss Christian Horner fears that 'nothing' will be achieved in changing Formula 1's engine rules for 2018, despite hopes of reduced costs and a narrowing of the performance gap.
Jonathan Noble
Edited: Apr 16, 2016, 3:55 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
F1's engine manufacturers have been working for several months now on tweaks to the rules that will reduce costs for customers, and ensure that performances of the different power units converge.
However, despite talks on the matter set to continue at this month's F1 Strategy Group meeting, Horner is highly sceptical of there ever being an agreement to change things.
"I think it's a complex situation, but fundamentally there were four criteria that were requested by the governing body to be met to ensure stability moving forward," he said in China.
"Those four criteria were: a significant reduction in cost to €12 million, the availability of supply or the guarantee of supply, power convergence to within a relatively small bandwidth and to address the noise.
"As we sit here now we are not anywhere near having met any of those criteria and I think unfortunately what will happen, as is often the case with these things, time will run out at the end of the month and nothing will be achieved and nothing will change.
"There is one more attempt in the Strategy meeting and the Commission meeting at the end of the month to discuss and table the concerns and where we're at. But failing, that regulations will inevitably stay as they are."
"Difficult to make everybody happy" - Wolff
Despite Horner's scepticism, Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff said that there were still efforts being made to find a deal that would keep everyone happy.
"We have been given the task in coming up with solutions so that no team is left without an engine," he explained. "I think all the engine manufacturers have acknowledged that, so we try to cover that.
"There is an aspect of price reduction, which is important to most of the teams, and we tried to cover that in the framework agreement.
"Obviously it's very difficult to make everybody happy. Christian isn't so happy. But I think we need to come up with a solution until the end of April. We need to ratify those regulations and at the moment everybody is working very hard to at least find the smallest common denominator."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Pirelli aims to test 2017 F1 tyres at the end of July
Next article Raikkonen and Vettel got 1st and 2nd in P2 at Shanghai
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Jonathan Noble
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
Formula 1
Formula 1
Brundle awarded OBE in King’s New Year’s honours
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Formula 1
Formula 1
The new rules dilemma that will define the 2025 F1 season
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
Formula 1
Formula 1
Australian GP
Verstappen issues Red Bull title warning in push for RB21 progress
More from
Red Bull Racing
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Formula 1
Formula 1
“I was getting beat up” – How Daniel Ricciardo burned out on ‘humiliating’ F1 return
Latest news
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 12 h
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 12 h
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
14 h
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
16 h
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
Feature
Discover prime content
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Formula 1
By Kevin Turner
Top 10 F1 cars of the 1970s
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe