Mercedes-Force India 'slave' concerns behind wait to sanction sale

Cyril Abiteboul says a concern over the development of "master and slave" relationships between teams is behind Renault's hesitance to agree to any deal that would save Force India's Formula 1 future. After the Silverstone-based squad went into administration, it has been reported that Renault, Williams and McLaren have refused to immediately sanction a sale.

As many as five parties are thought to be interested in taking over Force India from Vijay Mallya, after legal action instigated by driver Sergio Perez put the team into administration, with the hope of saving more than 400 employees.

Force India have been an engine customer of Mercedes' since 2009 and finished fourth in the constructors' standings in each of the last two years.

With concerns already existing over the close relationship between Ferrari and Haas - the American team take as many parts from the Italian marque as allowed in F1's regulations - Force India becoming even closer to Mercedes and gaining an advantage in F1's midfield is a concern.

"That's not the type of F1 we like," Abiteboul told BBC Sport. "We are a little bit afraid that such a construction would make it impossible for anyone who is not enjoying the benefit of a master team or slave team to be competitive at their own level.

"We start to see some glimpses of that today in certain aspects of the grid or the development of the chassis or engine.

"We need to make sure it does not become a necessity, otherwise our model does not work and our involvement can't be sustainable."

For his part, Mercedes chief Toto Wolff dismissed any notion of Mercedes controlling Force India moving forward, claiming the he agrees with Abiteboul's view on teams being too closely linked.

"We don't like the concept of B teams in Formula 1," he told BBC. "We'd rather not have this structure because it provides advantages to both teams - and competitive advantages, you could argue.

"We are not buying Force India and we would rather not have the concept of a B team."