Mercedes warn 2021 changes would be 'madness'

Toto Wolff has warned Liberty Media against sanctioning the "madness" of teams developing power units over the next two seasons, while also building engines to new regulations set to be introduced in 2021. Liberty is committed to introducing a "simpler, cheaper" PU to F1 in 2021, but it has angered the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes.

A proposed budget cap and a new set of power regulations have angered teams most out of Liberty's myriad plans to shake up the sport in 2021.

It appears that any changes may have been scaled back - Aston martin had expressed an interest in joining F1 as an engine supplier when liberty's announcement was made, but the British marque has since rowed back on that, suggesting that there was no sign of an end to F1's "arms race".

Wolff has hammered home his point yet again, saying that the current-spec engines are capable of producing exciting racing, while warning that the imminent need to start developing a new PU if rules are changed would only create issues.

"I think we have made our standpoint pretty clear that we think, for the sport, the best thing would be not to change a lot," he said.

"Leave it like it is so that the performances of the various engine suppliers converge.

"But then you need to take into account the sound debate, fuel saving, and maybe we can tweak it a little bit, add a little bit more revs, give more fuel allowance, and I think that would be perfectly enough to have good racing.

"The risk with knowing soon is that then everybody would start as early as now and develop two engines in parallel, which would be madness in my opinion."