Ferrari has confirmed that no agreement has been reached over the proposal to relax the engine freeze or allow in-season development.
Speaking on Monday, Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne confirmed that they failed to come to an agreement during a meeting last week between the three engine manufacturers, the FIA and Bernie Ecclestone.
“No change has been secured,” said Marchionne when pressed on the matter.
Ferrari and Renault have been pushing for the rules to be relaxed in order to allow them to catch up to Mercedes which held a clear power advantage during the 2014 season, allowing them to cruise to victory.
Mercedes and Honda are both against the proposal and have so far blocked the move.
Currently the rules allow for manufacturers to elect 48 per cent out of a possible 98 per cent of the components contained within the power unit to modify. They are then assigned 32 ‘tokens’ which are assigned to parts of the engine. If a component is deemed to have greater influence over performance, it costs more tokens to modify it than a less influential part.
This rule was criticised by Marchionne who says it’s far to complex for the fan at home to understand.
“The regulations are a real labyrinth; they are really badly assembled – they must have been written by drunk people at a bar.
“We have to simplify the rules so that even normal people can understand them,” he added.
A loophole in the rules has however provided Ferrari and Renault with some hope, as the regulations state that engines must be homologated on February 28th for the 2015 season.
Ferrari and Renault argue that they can use their current unmodified units for the start of the season before introducing an upgraded unit later in the year.
Whilst the FIA failed to offer clarification during last week’s meeting, it’s believed they have informally informed all four manufacturers that they won’t accept the introduction of modified engines later in the year and will shortly issue a re-worded rule to close the matter.
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