McLaren CEO Zak Brown has responded to rumors indicating Mercedes-powered cars would be forced to sit out of Formula 1‘s season-opener in Australia.
Without even a single competitive lap run, the rumor mill has already served up a tantalising prospect for the opening race of F1’s latest era at Melbourne, in March.
With a completely revamped engine rule-set, reports strongly suggested two teams – Mercedes and Red Bull – to have found a significant loophole in the regulations during the winter.
This came up to be christened the ‘compression ratio trick’. As per the 2026 technical regulations, power unit manufacturers could not exceed a 16:1 compression ratio within their respective PUs.
This is two steps down from the 18:1 ratio allowed under the turbo-hybrid era. This would be regulated via parc ferme inspections, however, at ambient temperatures.
The trick lies in the fact that these two teams had found a way to use materials that would expand in race conditions, under heat, and allow them to bump up the ratio to 18:1 without the FIA having a say in the matter as per the rulebook.
If true, this would hand Mercedes-powered cars, including McLaren, a substantial advantage over its rivals. Naturally, no sooner did this news filter out that there was a huge hue and cry from rival teams and PU manufacturers up and down the grid.
Brown, however, has downplayed the demands for an immediate rule change by its rivals as simple paddock “politics”.
“It’s typical politics of Formula 1,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“The engine has been designed and totally compliant within the rules. That’s what the sport is about. [This case is] no different to things like double diffusers that we’ve seen in the past, where they’re compliant within the rules.
“I don’t believe there’s a significant advantage as being represented by the competition. But of course their job is any perceived advantage, they’ll make some story out of it.
“But the reality is the engine is completely compliant, passed all its tests, and I think HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] has done a good job.”
McLaren confident to compete at the F1 Australian GP
A lot has been happening behind the scenes in terms of lobbying for an immediate change in the regulations. One suggestion that has come up is to fit sensors on the cars to monitor the compression ratios.
Another method propagated would involve the FIA inspecting the power units as a simulation of race-spec and condition.
Irrespective, for an immediate rule change to take place, four out of the five PU manufacturers would have to be onboard along with the FIA and F1.
As it turns out, the news that it was Red Bull who turned Mercedes in to the FIA – reportedly having failed to replicate the trick – may have endangered the Silver Arrows’ competitive hopes.
But Brown isn’t perturbed by any aspersions of Mercedes being forced to sit out of the season-opener. Rather, he is “sure” all the three Mercedes-powered cars, including Williams and the works team, will be on the grid in Melbourne.
“I can’t imagine that you wouldn’t have Mercedes teams on the grid in Australia,” he asserted. “We’re not privy to those conversations and so I wouldn’t even know from a power unit point of view what would be required to change the regulations.
“But we’ll have all the Mercedes teams on the grid in Australia, I’m sure.”
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