Gascoyne cautious over equalisation

The FIA has left the door open for engine performance to be readjusted ahead of 2010, if there is evidence that some power units have an advantage and if the teams agree that something needs to be done.

Ahead of that evaluation process, to be conducted by F1's Engine Working Group, Gascoyne thinks that teams have to look beyond just pure power figures before deciding if things need changing - especially with the new Cosworth engine having not yet run on track.

"A lot of factors need looking at," said Gascoyne. "We for example are generally happy with the overall performance of the Cosworth, but there are concerns about its fuel consumption levels and its endurance especially if the numbers of races each engine has to do increases."

The engine equality debate has focused around the recent performance of Mercedes-Benz power-units with a number of teams complaining about how strong the German car manufacturer's engines are.

Ross Brawn, whose team is powered by Mercedes-Benz, thinks the most important thing now is for teams to sit down and discuss the matter sensibly.

"I think we need facts and figures and the FIA are the only people who can really make a reasonable assessment of it," he said.

"When this occurred last time the manufacturers got together and gave Renault and Honda the ability to rehomologate their engine. I don't see why things have dramatically changed from then.

"I know the Mercedes engine has not dramatically changed from there, so the work that everybody did over the winter, nothing has changed since then. Our specification of the engine now is exactly the same as at the beginning of the season, but our car is working better at some circuits rather than others."

Mercedes-Benz motorsport boss Norbert Haug says his company will join the discussions about engine performance, but does not see a need for anything to be done.

"The FIA has nothing to criticise about our engine," he said. "Every measurement, every step we make is properly documented, is green lighted by the FIA.

"We suffered from an engine that was sometimes not reliable enough and we changed it into a good and reliable engine which does not mean that we can never have problems. That is the name of the game in Formula 1, isn't it? This is very important.

"If you have a problem and you need to discuss what to do to balance it out then I'm happy to talk. I'm absolutely sure that there will be a decent and professional and factually-oriented discussion about it."