SECOND-BEST. The Williams team seem to be the most likely challenger to Mercedes-Benz supremacy in F1 next season.
One area that could be resolved is the reduction of costs, particularly the new power units. Relaxing the engine freeze has been debated for months but is not resolved.
Red Bull’s Christian Horner and the Ferrari team’s former boss Marco Mattiacci have been the main protagonists, as both teams employ power units that cannot match the Mercedes design. Ferrari is using an in-house development while Red Bull relies on Renault for motive power.
With limited development allowed under current regulations it seems unlikely anyone will be able to match the current Mercedes power plant and word is the team will have an extra 29.8kW for 2015.
Honda will power the McLaren team next year and there is a lot riding on the return of the Japanese manufacturer.
Some teams are looking to 2016, when a change in the decision-making process could result in revised power unit regulations.
But will next year be another Mercedes-dominated season?
I think there’s a good chance it will be, but with some of the teams getting closer. More important is the future of the smaller teams and how the cost of the new power units has contributed to the demise of Marussia and the financial plight of Lotus, Force India, Sauber and Caterham.
Unfortunately all ideas of limiting costs have gone out the window. This was when the FIA proposed new engine regulations resulting in the current V6 hybrids. There have been calls from some, Horner being most vocal, to revert to the previous V8 engines, but then the Red Bull boss proposed using the V6 technology, but losing the new hybrid system.
But Toto Wolff of Mercedes believes the current power unit is the way of the future and any change to a simplified version would dig F1’s grave.
On the one hand we have the views and aims of the pure race teams – I use that expression very loosely here – versus the interests and massive investments of the automotive industry.
Where does F1 go now? Certainly reverting to the previous V8s is not going to happen and the manufacturers are adamant hybrid systems are the way to go.
But unless the big fish find a way to reduce the price of the power units for the rest of the field, we may reach a time when the smaller teams no longer exist and F1 becomes almost a one- make series.
Could F1 still then be a true world championship?
