Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner believes that "an independent engine in Formula 1 will be the best way for the sport to get the right performance balance back," according to Jonathan Noble of MOTORSPORT. Plans by F1 CEO Bernie Ecclestone and FIA President Jean Todt to introduce a competitive budget engine from '17 "have been put on hold while manufacturers come up with an alternative suggestion." But Horner, whose team is interested in going down the independent engine route, "thinks the original plan is still the best one." Horner said, "You need a competitive independent engine. That is what will bring balance back in to the whole system. ... Is it the promoter and the FIA? Or is it the manufacturers? We find ourselves unfortunately caught in the middle of that power play." The manufacturers "have already held meetings to propose ideas that will bring engine costs in F1 down, and have to submit a plan to the FIA next month" (MOTORSPORT, 12/28).
F1 DECLINE: SPORTSKEEDA opined F1 has "lost the charm it once had" in Ayrton Senna's time and even in the early stages of Lewis Hamilton's career. Despite this, "at face value nothing seems to have changed." If "everything really is still the same, why has viewership fallen by close to 7% over the last two years?" In what direction "is the sport really heading?" We have a "growing unprecedented power struggle between the controlling hierarchy of the sport and its competing teams." This is "disastrous" for Ecclestone, who "at the age of 85 is only in the sport for the power he has over it -- and the likely filling of his bottomless bank account that comes with this power." And equally so for Todt, "who would naturally want control over Formula One as the head of its governing body." Some "argue that this stronghold of dominant teams is the underlying cause for reducing interest in Formula One -- and there are very few reasons which come to mind to oppose this view." The "huge disparity between the best and worst in Formula One is the reason why we are faced with this issue in the first place, and the structural flaws in the sport does not help its cause either" (SPORTSKEEDA, 12/28).
