Mercedes claim there are 'no limits' to current F1 engine

Mercedes' High Performance Powertrains boss, Andy Cowell, believes that there are "no limits" to the performance of the current Formula One engine and thinks that the current regulations can still be further utilised to make faster, more powerful cars going forward.

Since the introduction of the V6 turbo-hybrid, Mercedes has emerged as champions in eight out of eight competitions over the driver's championship and constructor's championships respectively.

When asked if the limits of the engine were being reached, Cowell responded to the contrary, insisting there was more to come.

"I think that comes down to your belief and understanding of whether there is a limit," Cowell concluded,

"I personally don't believe there is a limit. I think you can always find gains.

"Every week I have the pleasure to sit in our performance and innovation meeting and listen to bright engineers come up with ways of getting a little bit more efficiency out of the various systems and then enjoying the competition in the factory to turn those ideas in proven experiments, and then prove that they are reliable enough.

"So, for all four [engine manufacturers], we will continue to develop and there is no such thing as a limit."

Cowell received support from his opposite number at Ferrari, Mattia Binotto, who agreed that there is always room for innovation.

"I would agree with Andy, no doubt," said the Scuderia engineer who has been in charge at Ferrari since they started making gains on Mercedes.

"When you put engineers together, there will be always innovations, creativity.

"For an engineer there are never limits. I think we have seen in the last years, in the last season, how much we improved, year after year.

"I don't think we have shown so far that we have reached the limit of the product."