Ferrari, Audi and Honda are fuming while Mercedes and Red Bull Ford can breathe a sigh of relief. The clever engine ‘trick’ that’s giving two teams an edge won’t be banned before the new season starts.
GPblog learned this directly from people involved in recent discussions between F1 teams and the FIA. The regularly scheduled engine meeting suddenly got more interesting when a controversial topic appeared on the agenda.
It turns out Mercedes—and later Red Bull Ford—found a smart way to boost their engines’ compression ratio, giving them more power while technically staying within the rules.
## How does the Mercedes and Red Bull ‘trick’ work?
F1 regulations say engine compression ratios can’t exceed 16:1. But everyone in the paddock knows that higher compression means better performance.
The clever part? These teams designed components that expand when the engine heats up.
When the FIA measures the compression ratio, they check engines that aren’t at full operating temperature. Once those engines heat up on track, certain parts expand, pushing the piston closer to the top of the cylinder. This creates a higher effective compression ratio than what was measured.
The result? More power and less fuel consumption.
Ferrari, Audi and Honda were not happy when they learned about this. They believe the trick breaks the rules and puts them at a serious disadvantage.
They wanted the FIA to step in and do something about it.
## Mercedes and Red Bull Ford have nothing to fear
Thursday’s meeting didn’t give Ferrari, Audi and Honda what they wanted. GPblog heard from various paddock sources that the discussion focused less on current interpretations and more on potential future amendments.
The bottom line? The ‘trick’ won’t be banned before the new season starts—if it ever gets banned at all.
Mercedes and Red Bull Ford remain confident they’re following the regulations to the letter.
Audi sees things differently but faces a practical problem: how do you file a protest against something you can’t actually see? Competitors can’t look inside Mercedes and Red Bull Ford engines, so everything about this ‘trick’ is basically based on rumors and hearsay.
Although nothing’s changing right now, this controversy is far from over.
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