16/03/2015
NEWS STORY
F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone has thrown his support behind Christian Horner's call for the FIA to address Mercedes advantage.
Following a dominant performance which saw the silver cars top the timesheets in every session and subsequently finish over thirty seconds ahead of the nearest opposition (Sebastian Vettel) and a whole lap ahead of his only driver that made it to the grid, Red Bull team boss Horner called on the FIA to apply the equalisation mechanism that is apparently within the rules, claiming that Mercedes current domination of the sport is not "healthy".
Whilst Helmut Marko took things a little further, suggesting that the company might revaluate the worth in continuing in F1, Ecclestone has come out in support of Horner.
"They are absolutely 100 percent right," he told Reuters. "There is a rule that I think Max (Mosley) put in when he was there that in the event that a particular team or engine supplier did something magic - which Mercedes have done - the FIA can level up things.
"They have done a first class job which everybody acknowledges," he added, referring to Mercedes not the FIA. "We need to change things a little bit now and try and level things up a little bit.
"What we should have done was frozen the Mercedes engine and leave everybody else to do what they want so they could have caught up," he argued. "We should support the FIA to make changes."
Of course, another winter of discontent saw the manufacturers arguing over the engine freeze, and had Mercedes been ordered to 'stand still' it might well have been the German manufacturer - which currently supplies three other teams - threatening to walk away from the sport.
Instead, the powers-that-be came up with a ludicrous tokens system, the sort of nonsense that is driving fans away from the sport, that and this continual manipulation of the rules in a brazen attempt to manufacture the competition and results that will hopefully have them return.
Of Marko's comment that Red Bull could walk away from F1, Ecclestone said: "Whether they will, who knows? Dieter is a sporting guy and I don't think he'll stop because he's being beaten. He's more likely to stop if he was winning."
Ignoring the fact that Red Bull is committed to F1 until 2020, Ecclestone will do whatever will sell the most TV subscriptions - and now apps and use of his website - the purity or even the fairness of the 'sport' is of no consequence.
As was said during the Schumacher/Ferrari era it is up to rivals to raise their game, not penalise the successful. Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault all started with the same blank piece of paper - so to speak - it's just that the German manufacturer made a better job of it.
It is not right to handicap it in order to appease poor losers who were uncharacteristically quiet when they were top of the heap, it is wholly wrong, it is unethical, to deliberately change the rules in order to produce the result that best suits the promoters.
Never mind Red Bull, it is the fans who are in danger of quitting F1. And who can blame them.