Marko: Engine rules 'driving McLaren to ruin'

Jun.2 - Dr Helmut Marko says formula one desperately needs new engine rules for 2021.

The Austrian is a leading F1 official at Red Bull, the energy drink owned company that has two teams on the grid and is promoter of the Austrian grand prix.

He told Salzburger Nachrichten newspaper that F1's current "nonsensical power unit formula" is "wrong for F1".

"Formula one needs an engine that is simple, loud and with a cost not exceeding ten million dollars," Marko said.

The report claims that if F1 proceeds with its current engines beyond 2020, Red Bull could quit the sport.

Marko said that is because the engines are hurting F1's popularity, which has been "drastically decreasing" since the start of the current rules in 2014.

"The power units are an incredible technical achievement that does not matter to the public and puts the driver in the background.

"It is madness if you need 20 million and more for an engine," he said. "Above all it is irrelevant, as there is nothing like this technology in production cars."

And Marko said the successful carmakers like Mercedes and Ferrari are currently in a position to "blackmail" other teams. "We were close to getting no engine in 2015," he said.

"The rules must be such that Cosworth and Ilmor can successfully and commercially make an engine, so that whoever wants one - whether us or Sauber or Toro Rosso - can buy one," he said.

He said the current rules have "almost driven McLaren to ruin. The sponsors run away.

"It is simply the complexity of these regulations that make it so difficult for a world-class company like Honda to be competitive," Marko insisted.

And so he puts it in new F1 owner Liberty Media's hands to fix the problem beyond 2020.

"We are assured by Liberty that they are serious. Ross Brawn works in this direction, because even a super engineer like him sometimes does not even understand."

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