Toto Wolff puzzled by Mercedes compression ratio controversy before FIA deadline
Toto Wolff is perplexed as to why the topic of compression ratios has emerged in conversation.
Mercedes team principal and CEO, Toto Wolff, admitted being confused at how power unit compression ratios became a topic of conversation over rumours his team had managed to utilise a potential grey area in the regulations.
PlanetF1.com revealed on Tuesday that a key meeting of the Power Unit Advisory Committee was scheduled to take place as testing in Bahrain resumed on Wednesday with the topic expected to feature as a prominent talking point.
Toto Wolff admits confusion over why compression ratios ‘suddenly became a topic’
As the regulations are written, a maximum ratio of 16:1 is specified when measured at ambient temperatures, but reports suggest Mercedes has found a way to adhere to the compression ratio limit, but then go beyond it when the power unit is at operating temperature.
Wolff has stated on several occasions that Mercedes has been in contact with the FIA throughout its power unit development to ensure its legality, though other power unit manufacturers are understood to have been lobbying the governing body over a potential rule change or clearing up language in the regulations.
Formula 1’s Power Unit Advisory Committee (PUAC), made up of all five PU manufacturers, FOM and the FIA, is understood to be seeking a resolution to the compression ratio issue ahead of the deadline for power unit homologation ahead of the new season, set for March 1, with a potential solution surrounding how to measure compression ratios at a PU’s operating temperature.
Wolff added that he has placed his trust in the governance in place by the PUAC, and would not contest any future ruling with legal action.
Given the prediction that the difference in compression ratio would, in Wolff’s estimations, be a matter of a “couple” of horsepower, he expressed surprise at how the paddock has reacted to this purported element of its new power unit.
“I’m a little bit more confused in recent weeks about how it came to the point now that it that it suddenly became a topic,” Wolff told PlanetF1.com and other media in Bahrain, “because until last Friday, I was given the impression that things wouldn’t change.”
Asked if he now believes there is a change behind the scenes, Wolff did not answer directly, quipping that he had been forwarded a report from Italy that suggested the regulations were set to change, joking that as a media report had circulated, it will happen.
Red Bull Powertrains had also been understood to have found the same grey area as Mercedes in the new regulations, and denied having changed its previous position to side with its rival PUMs on this area.
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Whatever happens, however, Wolff is well aware of the politicking which has long been a part of Formula 1, and what had not been a significant topic of conversation at Mercedes has ballooned somewhat in the paddock.
“You know, I’ve been here for a while, and you’re being misled, and you’re misleading all the time,” Wolff explained.
“So, there is no such thing as surprises anymore.
“The wind can change suddenly, [or as] Bernie Ecclestone would say, change of circumstance. ‘I said A yesterday, but today, my opinion is B’, and that happens all the time.
“It was less of a topic internally, because we didn’t think that this would make such a performance differentiator, and we still think that today.
“So it was not like, you know, ‘what a great invention.’ It became more of a topic when the other power unit manufacturers were making it a topic.”
Additional reporting by Thomas Maher
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