Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsFormula 1

Ecclestone's warning to engine suppliers

Bernie Ecclestone has warned engine suppliers they need to ensure customers are receiving the same specification power units as the manufacturer teams.

Mercedes has been dominant under the new V6 regulations, despite supplying its power unit to Williams, Force India and McLaren last season. At the start of this year, the 2014 constructors' champions appeared to have extended its advantage over the rest of the field in Melbourne, which led to some customers questioning whether it has the same power unit as the factory team.

While Ferrari has since shown itself to be a challenger to Mercedes, Ecclestone says he wants any future regulation changes - which have been discussed over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend - to ensure customers are receiving the same equipment.

"The two things that have to happen are whoever supplies engines to the teams has to supply the same engine as they current use," Ecclestone said. "If it’s going to be the current engine, upgraded to 1,000bhp, good. And they need to supply them at a price that the teams can afford to pay."

Asked what 1,000bhp will add to the show, Ecclestone replied: “We need to make the cars more difficult to drive."

Click here for a look at the brake-by-wire system which caused Mercedes problems in Bahrain

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.