Toto Wolff and Mattia Binotto insist that delay in failing to agree new engine formula for 2026 is not a deliberate bid to deter Porsche.
For as long as most of us can remember, Porsche and Audi have been on the verge of announcing their plans to enter F1. However, each claim in relation to their intentions is followed by months of silence until the next soundbite.
Part of the problem however, isn't so much the fault of the two Volkswagen Group owned giants but the failure to agree on the new engine formula for 2026.
Even the meeting of the F1 Commission at the Red Bull Ring led to a brief statement which made clear that progress on talks remain remarkably slow.
"The 2026 power unit was discussed by the Commission, and it was confirmed that the package of regulations is close to finalisation," it read.
While the basic 1.6 litre turbocharged unit will remain the same, many other aspects of the new formula have yet to be agreed up on, and though the MGU-H is to be scrapped, issues such as a proposed spending cap are still under discussion.
Porsche and Audi have been part of the talks for some time, and there was even talk of the former announcing its partnership with Red Bull at the Austrian Grand Prix. However, with the continued failure to reach an agreement some are wondering if this is a deliberate bid to stymie their entries.
Not at all, insists Mattia Binotto.
"We are very positive," says the Italian, "we are very positive because it's great for the F1, it's great having more manufacturers, and it's great to have Volkswagen Audi Group within our business and our Formula 1 racing championship.
"I think we've done whatever we could try to adapt, to make sure that they were happy," he adds. "We removed the H, we did it only to try to help them joining the F1 and believe that for us, removing the H is something which is not maybe the best choice.
"It's a compromise as we are discussing for the budget cap," he continues. "It's a compromise because these are technologies that we know pretty well, it's a very high-efficiency technology, which is great for F1. So I think that, overall again, we are very positive and constructive.
"Now, why is this taking so long? Because I think is a time which is required to do things properly, and simply we are not ready right now. Not only us, as current manufacturers, the FIA because they are the ones somehow leading the discussions.
"I think for also Audi and Porsche, the regulations are not ready, they're still open points, and these open points simply need to be tackled and discussed and agreed."
Asked if the apparent prevarication was a bid to deter Porsche, Toto Wolff is adamant.
"On the contrary, we don't want to delay those regulations, we want to have it in place," he says. "We have given the H, which was a massive thing to accommodate the newcomers.
"It was said to us that by the end of the year, we're going to have the confirmation that they're joining. That confirmation hasn't been given until today, I don't know why, this is an environment where regulations will change all the time.
"So you can't make it regulation dependent, it's something that we can expect from them also because we've made big steps towards them. Let's make those final stops on the regulations.
"We'd like to have them part of the show," he insists. "They've been sitting on the table negotiating those regulations since a while but not committed yet."
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