Budkowski: Interesting that Red Bull now favours an engine freeze

Following from Honda's announcement they will be departing Formula 1 at the end of 2021, Red Bull have pushed for a stop on power unit development from the 2022 season onwards, ostensibly to allow them to keep using Honda's IP without having to invest in further development.

Initially, only fellow engine-suppliers Mercedes supported the idea, but Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto indicated on Friday his outfit had come around to the idea, while Renault remain on the fence.

For Budkowski, the concern is that the proposal of a freeze in its current form is overly beneficial to Red Bull, which is particularly ironic given their previous stance.

"If you have to develop the current engines and develop a new technology at the same time you don't want to have to suddenly hire 100 people and put them on a new development while you continue developing your engine," he explained. "We think it's unreasonable to have two development programmes at the same time.

"We think the right way is roughly three years, so at the time we were actually advocating such a solution.

"Interestingly, Honda was against it. Against limiting dyno hours, against freezing development, and obviously through the voice of Red Bull, who were then voting in the different governance committees.

"It's interesting that now Red Bull is very much in favour of a freeze and it's interesting for us to see.

"We're not opposed to this as long as it is the right calendar.

"The regulations, as are set today, and until they change that's what applies, [are] severely restricting development from 2023, almost akin to a freeze, as there's no more development allowed on ICEs in 2023, and the new set of regulations are set for '26."

At the same time, Budkowski is open to the idea of bringing F1's new engine formula forwards by one year from 2026 to '25 (and an earlier development freeze), provided it is what is best for the sport.

"I think there's a lot of talk about anticipating these new regulations by one year which I think for F1 can make sense if we find the right set of regulations, potentially a better set of regulations," he suggested. "At that stage you have to freeze at some point in '22, whether the end of '22 or mid-'22, it will also be discussed.

"We're in line with this, it's a position we've always defended. However, we can't say now we're going to freeze from '21 for example, it's too late, we've engaged in engine programmes of a certain life cycle, we've pushed before to freeze early.

"The decision of the sport was not to freeze early, now we've invested time and effort into a new specification of engines, well, we're happy to find a compromise as long as it's a reasonable compromise.

"That's our position and to be honest it's been consistent throughout. Let's make some compromise, if you want, to the regs, not only because suddenly Honda decided that 'oh it was too expensive to do a Formula 1 engine', well they were not of this opinion before.

"Let's find the right thing for the sport, let's find the right engine formula for the future, and at the right time to introduce it."