Engines should remain a performance differentiator - Lowe

As discussions reach a head on engine regulations for the future, Mercedes tech boss Paddy Lowe power units should remain as a performance differentiator between manufacturers.

Current discussions over future engine regulations  center mainly around cost and availability, but efforts to level the performance between F1's power units are also a main objective.

In Lowe's view, initiatives to reduce performance gaps between manufacturers are wrong, and engine development should be anything but stagnant.

"The interesting thing that has emerged from [the current engine regulations] is this notion that the power unit or engine shouldn't be a differentiator," Lowe explained to ESPN.

"We had this brief period in F1 history when engines were frozen, but for me that's the anomaly. The clue's in the name, it's called motor sport for a good reason!

"So why we should think that the motor shouldn't be a differentiator is beyond me, we've just restored the thing that always used to be the case and I think it's absolutely correct.

"If Formula 1 should be a competition about sports men and technology, then it should be about all the technology and not just the bit that people feel like."

FEATURE: Silbermann says... One 'Flu and he's cuckoo at best

F1 technical - How does ERS deployment work?

Derek Warwick - Race of my life

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter