"I want to be clear that we take no satisfaction in the Honda's situation"

If it were up to Renault team boss Cyril Abiteboul, the rules about engines would be sooner deployed. According to Abiteboul, Honda's departure indicates that the current rules are not sustainable.

Poor development

Honda will no longer supply engines to Formula 1 teams from 2022 onwards, leaving Red Bull Racing an AlphaTauri without a supplier. "I want to be very clear that we take no satisfaction in the Honda situation", says Abiteboul in conversation with Autosport.com.

According to Abiteboul it is a bad development for Formula 1. "We need to draw some clear conclusions from this situation, and it's something I've been urging the governing body to look at more carefully. The engine situation is simply unsustainable. In particular from an economic perspective, but also from a technology perspective", continues the French team boss.

Joining F1 now is not attractive

"I would expect that this development triggers some harder thinking about the scheduling of the next generation of power trains", says Abiteboul. The current V6 Turbo engines will be in the cars until 2025. Abiteboul admits that it is not attractive for new manufacturers to enter the sport now, because Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault already have six years' experience with the current power sources.