F1 power units raising costs, ruining competition

Eric Boullier knows the sophisticated F1 power units drive up costs, bring no new fans to the sports, and create a larger gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Despite a troubled start with their Honda power unit, McLaren's Eric Boullier says McLaren undoubtedly knows how to win, but the introduction in 2015 of Formula 1's hybrid engine rules has clearly put the onus on the power unit, according to Boullier.

"The power unit is driving the performance much more than ever before. In the past when you had a difference of 30, 40 or 50 horsepower you could compensate for that with a good chassis.

"But with these power units we don’t speak only about power: we speak about deployment quality, recovery quality, strategy deployment – something we didn’t know in the beginning and only discovered last year.

"And it is there where Mercedes is still ahead, because they are discovering things before everybody else. And that is why you have a much bigger performance differentiation than you had in the past."

Mercedes pushed for these current power units. They were years ahead of everyone else in development and they have dominated since. Mercedes is happy, everyone else look losers.