Mercedes boss Toto Wolff says the price of a supply of power units is coming down, and reducing the burden on customer teams’ budgets.
As F1 looks to the future beyond 2020, when the current regulations cease to exist, Wolff insists that a relative reduction in sophistication and technology should bring costs down even further.
“I think by making the future engine regulations less complex the development costs of the manufacturers are going to go down,” Wolff told Motorsport.com.
“The engine development costs big money, and the engine departments of all the current suppliers are loss making entities which shouldn’t be the case, so we’re trying to contain that.
“On the other side we have found an agreement with the FIA to reduce the prices to all engine customers over the next years to levels that are the lowest ever in F1.
“I think if you get this kind of engine at prices like $12-14m, which is what we’re trying to achieve, I have no understanding for somebody that claims the engines are too expensive.”
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Wolff takes issue with certain teams’ approach which insist on cheaper engines only to increase the proportion of their budget allocated to chassis development.
“The very opportunistic and one-sided argument of certain teams to push the engine prices further down, and on the other side to spend £200m plus on chassis development, isn’t correct,” he says.
The Austrian manager says Mercedes is looking at F1’s future as a whole and not from a perspective which only takes into account its own interests and technological lead.
“I think we’ve proven in the past that we were not just opportunistic, and trying to push through regulations that fit us.
“I’m very well aware that there are deficits in the current engine concept. Maybe we can make it less complex so that fans can really understand how engine recovery really functions.
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“And certainly how we perceive the engines in terms of the sound is something that is close to my heart as well, because I think it is an important factor.”
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