Renault catches a break from FIA

The FIA will allow Renault to make a 'large' number of improvements to its engines for cost and reliability reasons, even though the FIA has ruled out any form of power equalization measures for 2010.

Renault appealed to the FIA just prior to the start of the season requesting that changes be made allowed for its power unit. There were at the time certain suggestions that the FIA might implement allowances to equalize engine performance for 2010.

This comes after Renault's customer partner Red Bull Racing openly express concern that other makes had gained performance and reliability over the off season, despite a supposed engine freeze.

Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner said: "I think the problem is if you don't allow some development, then you freeze in an advantage for one team or a disadvantage for another.

"So there has to be a balancing of that, otherwise we will end up with Mercedes-powered cars winning all the races – which I think is not good for F1. And other manufacturers may choose to leave F1 off of the back of that.

"The engine isn't supposed to be a key performance differentiator and therefore hopefully the ruling body will balance out somewhat the differences there at the moment."

Apparently, the FIA decided not to call this allowance 'equalization' because it of a lack of evidence that there was a big performance difference between the various power units.