Renault Sport managing director Cyril Abiteboul has warned Formula 1 risks losing one of their current engine suppliers if measures to reduce costs are not introduced.
Since the introduction of the current V6 hybrids in 2014, development costs have soared due to the complex nature of their designs and the push for every last bit of performance and reliability.
It is these costs which led to the current limit of three engines per driver per season and tackling the problem for 2021 was one of the goals for Liberty Media through simplification and other measures, although the lack of interest from other manufacturers is appearing to reduce the appetite for significant changes.
"[The rising cost] is in my opinion untenable," Abiteboul said to Motorsport.com. "It may be paying dividends for Honda now, but at some point, it will be untenable for one of the four and who knows what will happen then.
"I think F1 cannot afford to lose one of them and I don't see enough decisions [or] action being taken [by the FIA or new owners Liberty] to alleviate that necessity to spend, in a way that might be untenable in the medium to long-term."
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His focus on Honda comes as the Japanese manufacturer makes huge gains in performance as a result of big investment which Renault is having to respond to as they fall further behind in the engine stakes.
"They are definitely back," the Frenchman acknowledged. "They are at a similar level to us in terms of competitiveness.
"That's why again we cannot sleep on next year's engine development and we also need to put that in perspective of 2021, where we want to start as early as possible.
"As always we need to see how we can balance short-term objective with long-term objectives."
