Red Bull is to give Alpine its support as the French engine manufacturer calls for equalization of performance.
Though a driving force behind the introduction of the hybrid engine formula in 2014, Alpine (Renault) has won just 16 (8.3%) of the 193 races held since then, compared to Ferrari's 18, Mercedes 114 and Honda/RBPT's 44.
At the F1 Commission meeting scheduled to take place this weekend at Spa, several matters are up for discussion, including tyre blankets for 2024, the financial rules, in terms of the capital expenditure rise, the Sprints for 2024 and engine equalisation.
It is rumoured that the Alpine engine is between 20 and 33 bhp down on its rivals, though this hasn't been validated.
The current rules are in place until the end of 2025, which leaves Alpine facing a couple of seasons at a disadvantage, however the French manufacturer is suggesting that the sport could repeat what it did in 2007 - during the V8 era - after manufacturers managed to improve performance under the guise of reliability.
"All the teams do the same analysis and the FIA does its analysis," said Otmar Szafnauer when asked about speculation over his team's (engine) performance. "We are significantly down."
In 2022 came the engine freeze which, other than improvements in terms of reliability, was meant to stabilise performance until 2026, however with the engines homologated for a further two years Alpine is desperate for a rethink.
Thankfully, there appears to be support in the form of Red Bull, which, of course, is on the verge of entering as an engine manufacturer in its own right.
"It is about seeing what are the deficits," said Christian Horner, according to Motorsport.com. "The FIA have all of the data and they should present exactly what the differences are.
"I think that would be fascinating for everybody to see, and I think that if there is a deficit under homologation, then it's something that we should be sensible about, otherwise, you're locked in for two years. I wouldn't be averse to a sensible discussion."
"I am glad Christian said that," said Szafnauer, "because, if you look back, the reason the engines were frozen was because Honda was pulling out at that time and Red Bull didn't have an engine department to continue developing. The reason we all agreed was for the benefit of Red Bull, so it is nice that Christian recognises that.
"And, at the time of the arrangement, there was also an agreement among the engine manufacturers that if anybody fell out by 1% then there would be good faith discussions to bring that parity back.
"Everybody is allowed to fix their reliability issues," he added, "and hidden in reliability issues can sometimes be power upgrades. It depends on what reliability issue you are fixing.
"I remember in 2007 when we froze the V8s, I was the one who received every request from other teams for Honda. They came to me first, and all the requests back then were for cost-saving and reliability. I'd pass them on to the correct engineers. But there is a lot of stuff that can be disguised as reliability and then you increase the power."
While there is bound to be opposition from Mercedes and Ferrari, once the magic phrase "levelling the field" is used one presumes the move will get the green light.
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