Autosport Plus

MPH: Mark Hughes on...

The need for the governing body to re-examine F1's engine freeze regulations highlights the difficulties inherent in reining in the sport's fiendish cleverness

Autosport Magazine Feb 22, 2010, 5:07 PM

Something Christian Horner said last week really struck a chord: "We do have a major concern that the engine freeze has effectively frozen-in a disadvantage for some engines and we are relying on the governing body to deal with that accordingly." The arms race that decimated manufacturer support of F1, the self-inflicted damage done then, is still going on - even with most of the manufacturers gone.

Back at end of 2006/early '07, when the original engine freeze homologation was brought in, Mercedes effectively produced a brand new engine, specially for the freeze regs. It took its inspiration from what had begun '06 as the most powerful - the Cosworth. The similarlity wasn't too surprising given that a lot of the Cosworth guys had been recruited by Mercedes.