McLaren team principal believes that Mercedes engine will remain superior even with a single mode, reflects on next year’s deal with them.
FIA has reportedly planned to ban the party mode before the start of Belgian Grand Prix next weekend and it has been argued that it is to bring in to balance the competition in the sport.
Thus, there it is been claimed that Mercedes going to lose most by this decision. However, McLaren’s team principal Andreas Seidl has argued that Mercedes will remain the biggest powerhouse in the sport despite the decision.
“To be honest, we only have this information from that letter, which is a confidential letter, but it doesn’t go into the detail of what actually the FIA wants to achieve,” said Seidl of the planned rule change.
“So we need to wait for that. As you know, nowadays with these complex power units, there’s a big priority of different settings existing for different modes on the combustion engine, for different modes of the hybrid system, the way you use the battery in for reliability for power, for attacking, defending and so on.
“And in the end, we need to wait for what a change, if there’s a change, is targeting. Seidl denied that there might be any frustration in the McLaren camp that it is moving to Mercedes after the Stuttgart manufacturer is potentially reined in by the new ruling.
“To be honest I have no overview of what the difference of the different modes is for the different engine manufacturers because I’m sure every engine manufacturer has different modes available between qualifying and race, and also within the race.
“So I would be surprised if any engine manufacturer just has one mode available. How big the difference is between the different engine manufacturers I can’t judge. So I think that’s really a topic that needs to be sorted between the engine manufacturers and the FIA.
“I think whatever the rule changes are, I think that with the capacities and capabilities Mercedes is having, whatever the rules will be, I’m sure they will keep being the benchmark in this modern hybrid power unit era.”
Seidl stressed that the only thing that matters is having the same equipment and access to settings as a supplier’s works team.
“For us as a customer, the most important thing is that whatever the rules are, you simply get exactly the same modes and mileage for the different modes as the works team is having.
“And here I have maximum confidence in both Renault and Mercedes, I trust that they treat the customers the same as the works team.” He added.
“I think the rules are clear that the customers always get exactly the same settings as the works teams, which is part of our contracts as well that we have with the supply.
“So as I said, that’s the most important thing for us, and we have all confidence here in Renault and Mercedes, together also with the FIA, that this is ensured.”
Mercedes back McLaren claim
Even Mercedes has repeatedly mentioned that they won’t be affected by the decision by the body and has emphasized on the contrary that this ruling will enable prolonged output by their engine by giving less stress to them.
Presently, Mercedes is crashing all the lap records in the qualifying with Lewis Hamilton smashing all the numbers during the British Grand Prix.
