Engine freeze appears to be a fact, but will balance of performance follow?

A sigh of relief can be heard from Red Bull's Milton Keynes factory today. A freeze on engine development is a reality and will give the team enough room to effectively take over the Honda project. Nevertheless, a number of details still need to be ironed out, including the possibility of a performance safety net, something about which there is still considerable disagreement among the teams on the grid.

From 2022 onwards, the development of the Formula 1 engine will be frozen, as was officially decided today. In order to prevent every season from 2022 going the same way, with the same winners and losers, the option of a performance safety net, also known as Balance of Performance (BoP), has again been suggested. However, no agreement has been reached on this yet, and a formal decision is still pending, Motorsport.com reports.

A Balance of Performance is meant to bring the teams' engines closer together during the engine freeze, by limiting the engine performance within a minimum and maximum. Such a measure can give less performing teams room to catch up with the top teams, and will therefore make for more exciting races.

One of the people who is not favour of the introduction of the BoP is Toto Wolff. The Mercedes chief expressed his displeasure with the measure back in November 2020, which he said would undermine fair competition in the sport. Quoted by Motorsport.com, Wolff called a BoP 'a disgrace to Formula 1.' It is no surprise that Wolff is against such a performance safety net, as Mercedes will not directly benefit from a stronger grid and more competition.