Mercedes believes the upc💃oming clampdown on using engine ‘qualifying modes’ in Formula 1 could a𒅌ctually help it become more competitive.

New measures to prevent teams from using high-performance engine settings during key moments in qualifying are expected to be implemented by th෴e FIA to require all teams to use 💝the same modes in qualifying and the race.

The new restrictions were originally meant to be enforced from next week’s Belgian Grand Prix via a technical directive, however, the change is 👍understood to have been d🐓elayed by one race until the following round at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza on 6 September.

Mercedes has dominated the current era of turbo-hybrid engines that began in 2014 by winning every title on offer, and the German manufac🐽turer was the first team to pioneer and introduce such settings for qualifying, dubbed a ‘party mode’ by Lewis Hamilton.

The aggressi𝔉ve nature of the ‘quali modes’ to extract maximum performance from the engine heavily drains power unit resources and battery, meaning the settings are only deployed over a few laps in qualifying for optimum performance as they are unsuitable for a full race-distance due to placing greater demand on reliability.

The ban is set to rein in the Mercedes-powered teams that trad༒itionally make the biggest performance gains in qualifying, with some suggestions the changes could have major implications on the picture of this year’s world championship outcome.

Mercedes has dominated the star♌t of the delayed 2020 season and opened up a comfortable buffer in both world championships, having won five of the opening six r🦩ounds of the campaign so far.

But Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolf▨f has downplayed the impact of the looming restrictions and suggested the move may actually end up favo🦩uring his team rather than disadvantaging it.

"I think we don't lack performance on Saturd🍎ays," Wolff s🍌aid. "We had until now quite a margin.

"We struggled in some of the races where we were quite limited in powerful engine modes, and if Formula 1 were to ban in-season, ce😼rtain power unit modes, then I think it will actually help us in the race.

"If you can avoid to damage your power unit in those few qualifying laps that you have available, in Q3 and then the odd lap in the race, the damage metric🥃s goes down dramatically.

“So five laps of quali mode not be🌱ing done gives us 25 laps of more performance in the race, and that is somethiꦰng we believe will give us more performance.

"You must take into effect even if it may hurt𓃲 us more in qualifying, which I'm not sure, and it's a couple of tenths, then it will hurt all the others in the same way.

“But for us, we are al🐓ways very marginal on what we can extract from the power unit, and if we♕ were to be limited in qualifying modes, then well, we will be stronger in the race.”

Mercedes ﷽has taken every single pole position on offer so far this season and has locked out the front-row of the grid at five of the first 💎six races, holding a comfortable advantage over its rivals in qualifying. 

Despite claiming the ban is 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:“obviously to slow us down”, Hamilton insisted he had no conceܫrns that the changꦿes would end up cutting Mercedes’ current advantage.

“I uꦑnderstand in one respect that they want to see closer racing,” the six-times world champion explained.

“But it’ll be interesting to see what they do moving forwards. Regardless of ♛what they do, we are the best team and we’re going to handle whatever it is as the professionals we are. We’ll just continue to do a better job.

“Whatever they change, whatever they throw at us we’re going to catch it, assess it and then deliver to the highesꦚt standard. So there is no concern for me.”

Teammate Valtteri Bottas, added: “We are𓆉 not panicking about it. If the regulation comes then it’s same for everyone.

“Every team has different modes, how much they’re going to risk in terms of wearing ܫthe engine and sometimes when they can – and also same for us – save the engine. 

“Also in terms of strategic things in the race for driver𒆙s, many times we’re using different kinds of modes whether we are defending or attacking." 

Speaking after last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, F1 race director Michael Masi insisted he was confident that the planned clampdow꧙n can be successfully policed by the FIA.

"I think we're very confident of that, otherwise we wouldn't have gone down th༺e road that we have," Masi said.

"I know that the technical team i🧸n particular has done a huge amount of work on this, and has also consulted with the four power unit manufacturers to get their input into this.

"We're as confident as we possibly can b⭕e at the moment, otherwise we wouldn't be going down that road.

"I think as the⛄ late Charlie Whiting used to say, we have a technical team of 10, you add a thousand people at each of the💯 various PU manufacturers, so…

"But no, we are confident, otherwise we certainly wouldn't be going down 🎉that road ꦅpursuing it."