Red Bull's chief technical officer Adrian Newey believes plans to ditch F1's engine token system next year will result in a "spending frenzy" in which Renault will lose out.
In order to free up development and allow the likes of Renault and Honda to catch up, restrictions on how many upgrades manufacturers can bring to their power units will be lifted next year. Those in favour of lifting the token system argue that the same amount of development happens regardless of the restrictions but manufacturers are simply limited on how many of their developments hit the track.
However, Newey believes ditching the token system altogether would not be necessary if the pace setters were restricted and those struggling allowed freedom to catch up.
"If you look back on the original technical working group meetings and minutes from 2012-13, the agreement at that point was that the engines would be frozen but teams that were behind would still be allowed to keep developing. That's not happened," Newey told Reuters. "So it becomes a spending frenzy...the numbers being spent by the big manufacturers are eye-watering.
"I think potentially for companies such as Renault who aren't prepared to spend that sort of money, it means actually the gaps get bigger not smaller."
Renault will supply Red Bull with TAG Heuer-badged engines this year, with both sides open to continuing in 2017 if no other options become available. Newey's concern is that Renault will be outspent by its rivals and fall further behind.
"Of course it's an option for Red Bull and an option for Renault [to continue together]. The problem of course is that if Renault are not able to compete with the spend and development race then we are put in a position where neither they nor us can be fully competitive."