Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has robustly defended the legality of Mercedes\u2019 power unit, at a time when rivals have raised serious questions.<\/p>\n
The 2026 power unit regulations stipulate a mandatory compression ratio of 16:1, which the Silver Arrows comply with in order to pass the necessary grand prix tests.<\/p>\n
Crucially, these tests conducted by the FIA take place when a power unit is at ambient temperature, potentially opening the door for the rules to be bent.<\/p>\n
It is believed Mercedes\u2019 engine is capable of operating with a compression ratio of 18:1 while on track, giving the W17 better efficiency through low- and medium-speed corners.<\/p>\n
While motorsport\u2019s governing body has deemed the Brackley-based team\u2019s engine legal, it has announced new power unit tests to be introduced from June 1.<\/p>\n
The new tests will see the FIA start checking compression ratios at 130\u00b0C, eliminating any Mercedes advantage if it is running at 18:1, as this would then become detectable.<\/p>\n
Essentially, this will force all teams to run a 16:1 ratio to pass the checks. In Montoya\u2019s eyes, Mercedes\u2019 rivals are wrong to complain, stressing that what makes F1 great is the technical ingenuity involved in finding ways to work around the rules.<\/p>\n
Asked what he makes of Mercedes’ rivals questioning the legality of its power unit, Montoya exclusively told RacingNews365: “For me, it\u2019s kind of crazy to say that it\u2019s not in the rules.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“If the rule says [you need to] measure at this temperature and you go and measure at that temperature, and the engine is [deemed] legal, that\u2019s what the rule says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s the beauty of F1: finding ways to bend the rules, finding ways to do it better than anybody else, and finding things that nobody else can do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“And if you\u2019re complaining about that, instead of complaining, why don\u2019t you try to do it yourself?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Formula 1 driver Juan Pablo Montoya has robustly defended the legality of Mercedes\u2019 power unit, at a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":597788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,827,817,830,828,831,829,826,813,816,823,825,824,822,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-597787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-daniel-ricciardo","11":"tag-f1","12":"tag-f1-calendar","13":"tag-f1-live","14":"tag-f1-results","15":"tag-f1-standings","16":"tag-ferrari","17":"tag-formula-1","18":"tag-formula1","19":"tag-lewis-hamilton","20":"tag-max-verstappen","21":"tag-motorsport","22":"tag-racing","23":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597787","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=597787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/597788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}