McLaren joins Red Bull and Ferrari's call for unfreezing F1 engines
To freeze or unfreeze? That is the question that many people in the F1 world are asking as the F1 teams are taking sides on either part of the question. McLaren has now joined Red Bull and Ferrari raising voice to unfreeze F1 engine development during a season. There is a reason that Mercedes AMG Petronas team was able to dominate the 2014 season. And that is because they were able to develop an efficient engine with better performance than the others before the start of the season. This helped the team to win both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ championship as F1 rules restrict the competing teams for further engine development during a season.
This is the same reason that the teams using Mercedes engines were able to finish on the top of the table while others were left crying foul. Now Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren are asking for a change in the regulations (you can guess where these teams ended up on the table). The reason they quote for this is unfair advantage that Mercedes has. Though Mercedes can’t be blamed for doing a better work than others, that is exactly what is happening. Mercedes, obviously, has countered the argument saying that if the unfreeze happens, it will send the costs through the roof, resulting in financial crisis.
Experts are saying that the teams calling for unfreezing are being unfair as the development freeze is for very small portion, around 8%, of the engine parts. The engine freeze is being administered as a multi stage program and the complete freeze will not be in place till 2019. So, coming back to the question of freeze or unfreeze, it’s too late for a decision to be made for the 2015 season. But hopefully, a final decision could be taken for the 2016 season.
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