F1 “not doing enough” to level playing field - Abiteboul

Renault Sport F1 Managing Director Cyril Abiteboul believes more needs to be done to even out the grid after seven years of title domination by Mercedes.

Abiteboul praised the introduction of a budget cap and future regulation changes that aim to prevent a single team running away at the front, but said he is concerned that the methods may be difficult to police.

“I am really concerned that we are still not doing enough to bring the sport to a level playing field,” he said. “A number of steps have been made, but all of that will only be as good as the monitoring and enforceability of the system.

“Only time that will tell if what we have done is good enough. We also need to be careful with the movement of personnel because some teams will have to downsize, some teams are going to increase their operation.

“It is in that sort of thing where we need to make sure that we stick with the regulations. There are a number of restrictions in the regulations for these things, and we just need to make sure they are enforced properly.”

Mercedes scored 573 points this season and were over 250 points clear of second-placed Red Bull on 319.

The gap to the midfield was a further 117 points with Mclaren ending the year third on 202 points. Renault, in fifth, registered 181 points - the team's highest total since it last won the constructors' title in 2006.

Abiteboul noted the “interesting” fact that, heading into the season finale, Renault, McLaren and Racing Point each highlighted distinctly different development philosophies - Renault developing the entire car and power unit in house, McLaren developing a car but purchasing a power unit and Racing Point buying a power unit and certain components.

However, while each team is similarly matched, he suggested it would be far better for the sport if the battle was not for third but was being fought for the championship trophy.

“Renault, a complete manufacturer, producing every single thing from the engine to the chassis, we are a true constructor,” he explained. “Then you have your other extreme we’ve seen this year, and it’s not a controversy but it’s no secret that Racing Point has the model of buying as much as they can from Mercedes.

“Then you have McLaren sitting in the middle and doing a great job at what it is responsible for, which is chassis design. What’s interesting in is that you have three teams fighting for the third position and we all have our own ideas.

“Frankly, to a certain degree, that’s fine, that’s good, that shows that we have an interesting battle that is possible with three different models. But we should not lose sight that we are all one second or more from the leading team.”

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