Should Formula 1 open up its engine regulations?

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about engines in Formula 1 and how open the regulations should be. The dominance of the Mercedes engine last year has opened up even more discussion about this topic. Each engine manufacture is only allowed a certain number of parts to change before submitting its final design to the FIA for the season. The current regulation in which the engines are frozen has had some people worried that Mercedes engines will dominate the sport until a new engine regulation is made.

2015 Honda F1 engine

The argument that can be made to keep the engine regulations frozen is that opening the engines up for development will increase costs in a sport which is already having difficulty keeping cost under control. This could lead to having grids which could be at an all time low which could potentially harm the image of F1 and also make the current engine manufactures look toward other forms of motorsport.

I think that in order to increase the competition in F1 the engine regulations need to be opened up a little bit. I think that completely opening up the regulations could make costs too much for the teams but I think a bit more of a development race could make things more interesting. I think one way in which this could be done is to allow for a certain number of periods in which a new engine design could be allowed. For example, each engine manufacture would submit a design to the FIA that could be used for the flyaway races to begin the season. Then they could change a certain number of parts to change before another design is frozen for the European season and then this process could happen again for the flyaway races at the end of the season in which they can change a certain number of parts again.

I think that this could allow for more competition throughout the season which could allow the manufactures more chances to catch up to each other if they get off to a slow start but this will still not be completely open regulations in which cost could escalate too quickly.

How do you feel about the current regulations in Formula 1? Do you think they should stay as they are or should they be opened up more? Let us know in the comments section below.