There is absolutely no suggestion or evidence that Merc held or tried to hold anyone to ransom. There are 2 different interests here, the F1 team and the engine supplier for F1. After the financial crisis, many of the engine makers who ran works teams pulled out with indecent haste, including Honda, Toyota and BMW. The remaining ones were asked how the sport could become better for them.
They all came up with their preferences, each engine maker ofcourse would have a criteria that made sense for it and would prevent it departing like the others, lets remember that the makers were spending vast amounts with no apparent gain.
Renault quit running an F1 team and were about to stop supplying engines, they did a u tuirn when assured the engines would be made relevant, Merc stated their prefernce for the engines to be relevant. Ferrari also stated their preference. Starting with 4 cylinder (straight 4's?) relevant for Audi and most mass manufacturer up to V8's etc for small volume sports car makers. A compromise after a delay was for the V6 turbo.
Merc as a team have never blackmailed F1, neither as an engine supplier. Renault as an engine supplier did. Ferrari as a team have on numerous occasions.
Any suggestion that Merc threatened to leave if the engines were not changed is at best ignorant and at worst s*** stirring and bad mouthing. In fact anyone categorically claiming that Merc said 'new turbo or we quit' would be inviting litigation. All they said was that 'had the engine formula not changed, the chances are they would have quit SUPPLYING engines as there would be no relevance to their business
As F1 fans its important we combat the spreading of stories that originate from a minority with an agenda. This is what Bernie does all the time through the media, and its what Montezemol tries to do but with farcical results mostly
The team which has profited most from the changes, with three wins out of three in 2014 and an engine which is believed to have as much as 100bhp more than its rivals, said the new turbo-powered engines provided the justification for their continuing presence in the sport.
Merc said this
Pressed as to whether Mercedes would have walked away had F1 not committed to the efficiency formula, he said: "I think so, yeah because we had the discussion.
"We had at different times the challenge to discuss F1 with the (Daimler) supervisory board.
"We had hard discussions. And it was always - and even more so when it came to the later years - harder to explain why we were using naturally aspirated engines.
"Now with these new regulations I can clearly convince the supervisory board that the (F1 team) are doing exactly what we need - downsizing, direct injection, lightweight construction, fuel efficiency on the highest possible level, new technologies and combining a combustion engine with an e-motor hybrid."
Weber also hit back at claims by Ferrari president Luca Di Montezmolo that fans are not enjoying F1's fuel-flow restriction as they cannot understand it.
The Daimler man said it was a "stupid discussion" and that if fans didn't grasp it that was a "communication issue."
We are not stuck with only the media feeding us doctored info, why should we, on an open forum not grab the opportunity to reject spin and embrace the truth and after hearing the facts decide for ourselves?
