McLaren CEO Zak Brown is certain the season-opening Australian Grand Prix will not be ruined by the spectacle of the Mercedes-powered teams not being on the grid.<\/p>\n
Following the introduction of new power units for this season, F1’s compression ratio row is undermining pre-season preparations, and despite the best efforts of the FIA, could yet spill over in the curtain-raising race at Melbourne’s Albert Park.<\/p>\n
The furore centres on the fact that Mercedes has produced a PU that can run at a higher compression ratio of 18:1 under hotter racing conditions. The regulations state that the ratio must be 16:1, albeit the measurement is taken in ambient conditions.<\/p>\n
The compression ratio relates to the performance of the pistons inside the internal combustion engine. A higher ratio means more power from the mixture of air and fuel, which has been compressed.<\/p>\n
Mercedes’ PU rivals – Ferrari, Audi, and Honda, with Red Bull Powertrains also now believed to have joined forces – have lodged complaints to the FIA, and are aiming to seek changes before the PUs are homologated on March 1.<\/p>\n
If changes are enforced, this would leave Mercedes with no time to make changes before the Australian GP, and potentially force it and its customers – McLaren, Williams, and Alpine – out of the race.<\/p>\n
It is an armageddon scenario, and one that the FIA is determined to avoid at all costs, with compromises being sought. Brown is convinced the worst can be avoided.<\/p>\n
“I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t have Mercedes teams on the grid in Australia,” said Brown, speaking to select media, including RacingNews365.<\/p>\n
“We’re not privy to those conversations, so I wouldn’t even know from a power unit point of view what would be required to change the regulations. But we’ll have all the Mercedes teams on the grid in Australia.”<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\tF1 politics rears its ugly head again<\/p>\n
Brown insists that the arguments so far waged are simply the “typical politics of Formula 1”. He added: “The engine has been designed and is totally compliant with the rules.<\/p>\n
“That’s what the sport is about, no different than things like double diffusers that we’ve seen in the past, where they were compliant within the rules.<\/p>\n
“I don’t believe there’s a significant advantage, as being represented by the competition, but of course, their job is to make a story out of any perceived advantage.<\/p>\n
“The reality is the engine is completely compliant. It has passed all its tests. And I think HPP [Mercedes High-Performance Powertrains] has done a good job.”<\/p>\n
As a customer, Brown claims McLaren has had no influence in the discussions that have taken place.<\/p>\n
He said: “We’re aware, but it’s a Mercedes topic. We obviously don’t build and design the power unit.<\/p>\n
“HPP does a good job of keeping us in the loop, because obviously we’re very interested. But we don’t sit in the power unit working group where those conversations happen.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"McLaren CEO Zak Brown is certain the season-opening Australian Grand Prix will not be ruined by the spectacle…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469033,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[572],"tags":[64,63,827,830,828,831,829,826,813,823,825,806,805,824,803,804,822,85],"class_list":["post-469032","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-motosport","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-daniel-ricciardo","tag-f1-calendar","tag-f1-live","tag-f1-results","tag-f1-standings","tag-ferrari","tag-formula-1","tag-lewis-hamilton","tag-max-verstappen","tag-motor","tag-motor-sports","tag-motorsport","tag-motosport","tag-motosports","tag-racing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469032","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=469032"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469032\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469032"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469032"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469032"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}