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SOCHI, Russia - Mercedes is unlikely to back down amid pressure from F1 rivals to agree to relax the current engine 'freeze'. F1's current V6 power units cannot be changed or tinkered with during 2014.
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said at the 2014 Russian GP that Mercedes initially agreed to the proposed 'unfreeze' but then went back on its word.
Horner said: "In Singapore the teams unanimously agreed on a position and then, I think, subsequently from that meeting, Mercedes changed its position."
'POSITION WILL NOT CHANGE'
After that, most of those in the F1 strategy group voted for the 'unfreeze' so it will now be sent to the F1 Commission for ratification but without dominant Mercedes and the brand's customer-powered teams also on board, the changes will not be allowed in 2015.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes' motorsport boss, said in Russia on Saturday: "We've already stated our position at the meeting of the strategy group. Our position will not change."
Wolff said Mercedes' position was not because the team has been so dominant through this the first season of the turbo V6 hybrid era but "because F1 needs stability".
Wolff insisted: "It would be very easy to just block everything from our position of strength but we have a different approach. There are rules, there are procedures so that we do not make hasty decisions that may lead to destabilisation.
"I am deeply convinced that you cannot change the rules in October just because they do not suit you."
DRIVE UP COSTS?
Wolff argued that allowing in-season engine development would drive up costs, perhaps even most of all for Mercedes. He also hit back at Ferrari's claim that allowing the 'unfreeze' would not cost any more: "If you make a new version of the engine by the end of June or the beginning of July, then the process of development happens twice per year, not once.
"I don't know how Ferrari has done its calculations but perhaps we should give them a calculator. It is impossible that it does not cost more."
"We (Mercedes) supply engines to three customers as well as our own team. We need to produce and supply all of them with the same power unit. It's a situation different to that of Honda which has only one team, or Ferrari with two, though it is unclear what will happen in 2014."
"We are also in a different situation to Renault. This subject will be conducted at the level of the F1 Commission and I think it is quite understandable that there is no consensus just three months before the start of the new season."