Mercedes engine boss Andy Cowell has played down concerns the reduction of permitted engines to just three in 2018 will put too much priority on reliability over performance.
With particularly Renault and Honda far exceeding last year’s limit of four units for the season, many believe engine makers will have to turn down the power to ensure each engine last as long as possible.
But Cowell, who oversaw the only manufacturer not to take a forced grid drop in 2017, with Lewis Hamilton’s optionally taking a fifth after his qualifying crash in Brazil, sees it as just a continuation of a recent trend in F1.
“The move to the three engines means that you need to do seven races with each power unit, rather than five,” he told Motorsport.com.
“That’s a reasonable step forward, but for the last 10 years every single engine engineer has had a progressively increasing life requirement from everything that he or she’s been working on, and so it’s not a new science, it’s just a different number.”
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Indeed, even during the V8 era drivers were limited to eight units, which became five for the V6 hybrids and has dropped by one the last two years, so for Mercedes and the rest, it’s all about balance.
“It’s what the engineers have completely accustomed to managing and our ambition is always to not compromise our qualifying pace, nor our race pace but not have a DNF or need a grid penalty,” Cowell added.
