Manufacturers vote to push engine development, will any F1 team veto it?

A meeting of F1 engine manufacturers with the FIA in Geneva this week agreed to continue the concept of in-season development next year, giving a big boost to Ferrari, Honda and Renault, according to leading German site Auto Motor und Sport.

Now the F1 world waits to see whether any of the teams choses to veto it.

Mercedes has had the edge on power and performance since the new hybrid turbo rules came into force in 2014, but this year a loophole in the regulations evolved into a 'token' system for allowing development during the season.

The rules for 2016 originally closed this loophole, but the other manufacturers have been pushing for the system to remain open to development, to allow them to close up to Mercedes as quickly as possible. The token system will remain and the manufacturers will have 32 tokens available, meaning that a significant amount of development can take place.

This is very good news for Honda and Renault in particular, the Japanese manufacturer is a few years behind the others and this gives them a straighter route towards finding competitiveness by 2017.

At this week's meeting Mercedes agreed to go along with the plan, as predicted on this site earlier in the week. But to come into force it has to be approved by all F1 teams unanimously and with Red Bull currently without a competitive engine for next season, it may seek to leverage its vote for an improvement in that position.

Red Bull is hoping for a 2016 supply of Ferraris, but the Italian manufacturer was briefing in Sochi that at this late stage it cannot produce enough of its 2016 engines in time for the start of February testing and the first race in March, given that there is a modification to the width of the block from the 2015 unit.

Mercedes has made clear that it will not shift in its position that it will not supply Red Bull. Its roster of customer teams is fixed on Williams, Force India and new customer Manor. Now that Mercedes development driver Pascal Wehrlein has clinched the DTM title, he may well earn a promotion to F1 with the Banbury based team.

Also agreed among the manufacturers was a facility for year-old engines to be eligible. This allows Ferrari to supply Toro Rosso with 2015 engines next season, a deal which the Faenza team is happy to take.

According to Auto Motor und Sport, "The issue of limiting costs arose once again in Geneva. The idea was tabled of fixing maximum (engine supply) prices at 12 million euros for new engines and 8 million euros for one year-old engines. But Ferrari reiterated that if necessary, they would exercise a veto, should the rest of the teams vote for that."