Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claims the perception that top teams want stability in the Formula 1 rules to stay ahead is false.
As talks reach a crucial stage to decide the shape of the sport in 2021, concerns have been raised from smaller teams that the manufacturers are trying to water down the more radical proposals.
However, the Austrian explained his philosophy that constant change in F1 is actually keeping the status quo in terms of the pecking order.
“When you look at the 2019 regulations and the 2018 regulations, teams at the front have increased the gaps they had, so we are back to square one,” Wolff said via Crash.net.
“I think we are making that mistake over and over again, but it is very difficult from our position to be credible or to be heard.
“They believe we want to maintain rules as they are to maintain our advantage, whilst the opposite is actually the case. Leave it alone and performance will converge.”
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The Mercedes boss’ argument does hold a lot of weight because for every new regulation that is introduced which impacts performance, usually, the bigger teams have more resources to be better prepared.
“The default reaction in the past, when a team or three big teams are running away, is that we change the regulations because you believe that by changing the regulations others may catch up,” Wolff continued.
“I think that exactly the opposite is the case if you leave regulations alone, which is counter-intuitive, eventually performance converges.
“We’ve seen that in the power unit regulations for a while and I think that if we leave the chassis regulations alone, eventually more teams will be closer together.
“But as in the past, teams lobby for change because they believe that rolling the dice can be an advantage for them.”