Wolff: Formula 1 is the Champions League

The new generation of power units to be used in F1 has been under discussions for a while now, and the latest round of discussions were in Monza over the Italian GP weekend.

Although not fully finalized, it is well known that the new power unit will drop the MGU-H element, which is considered to be the most complicated component.

This should serve as an incentive to VW to enter the sport, as they were keen to see that component eliminated from the future power unit architecture, in a bid to have more road-relevant power mills, whilst cutting the cost of design and production.

Mercedes Motorsport Boss Toto Wolff, whose company wasn't thrilled by removing the MGU-H as they have heavily invested in it over the years, spoke to GPFANS on this subject.

"It's great we have strong OEMs that are showing an interest in coming to our sport," he said.

"Obviously none of these major car companies want to come in and face a situation where they are highly uncompetitive," Wolff pointed out, hinting at another potential Honda situation.

"Therefore we need to have systems in place that mitigate these very big risks."

However, the Austrian warned the newcomers shouldn't expect immediate success in the sport, since aside from Mercedes, all other power unit suppliers have struggled initially with the new turbo-hybrid technology.

"On the other side, Formula 1 is the Champions League and nobody can expect to enter the Champions League for the first time and go straight into the final and go home with the biggest trophy," he warned.

"We've been there a long time, invested lots of money, sweat, blood and [suffered] terrible results in order to get us where we are.

"Look at Mercedes' history in the first five years of us being a works team, the terrible Honda days they faced, the Renault days," Wolff recalled. "Everybody has had to fight their way up in order to eventually win races and championships.

"It's a fine balance we need to get right in order to attract newcomers as power unit manufacturers. Everybody needs to recognise you can't just come and conquer, you need to give it time," the Mercedes man insisted.

Wolff went on to explain that throwing money at problems is not the right approach. Time and patience are the two major ingredients for success.

"In the past, that's what many OEMs have misunderstood," he claimed. "If you look at Toyota, BMW and Honda, all the money, all the resource is irrelevant if you don't give the project enough time.

"Everybody who joins F1 as a team or as a power unit manufacturer misunderstands this needs time. The fact that it is not easy to win makes the sport so attractive."

The 49-year old who has been with Mercedes since 2013 and during their utterly dominant streak since 2014, said that there are so many details that still need finalizing regarding the 2025 power units.

"We all agree on the sustainability concept going forward but what needs to be defined is the detail - newcomers versus incumbents and various other parameters," he highlighted.

And then concluded: "But the global concept is clear and we are already far advanced into the discussions of the regulations but we are not there."

Worth noting, that despite setting the power unit benchmark in the turbo-hybrid era from day one, Mercedes are having a difficult time in 2021, as their field leading power mills are proving to be fragile, with Valtteri Bottas using six internal combustion engines compared to the allowed three.

This fact is casting doubts on the reigning world champions and their star driver Lewis Hamilton, as they fend off the serious title challenge of Red Bull and Max Verstappen. Mercedes lead Red Bull by 23 points, while Verstappen is 12 points ahead of Hamilton.