Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko says Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is blocking changes for next year due to paranoia of hurting his team's dominance.
Opinion is currently split on whether F1 can agree on four major changes surrounding engines for next year, notably a performance convergence between the current power units. Red Bull team boss Christian Horner expressed his doubts in China that an agreement will be reached in time for April 30, the final deadline for 2017's regulations.
Wolff himself suggested F1 might be left with a compromised set of regulations when the decision is made at the end of the month, while Horner has called on the FIA to reintroduce the threat of a budget engine to bring manufacturers into line. Marko thinks Wolff's opposition is motivated by the fear of what regulation changes would do to Mercedes' current position at the top of the pecking order.
"Except for Toto and the teams that must follow him due to their engine contracts, everyone is for a change," Marko told Motorsport-Magazin. "Even [Ferrari president] Sergio Marchionne agrees. Only Herr Wolff has this paranoid fear that Mercedes will lose its superiority if you change even the smallest thing on the engine or chassis. Toto Wolff is doing everything he can to prevent any change."
However, Wolff says the exciting three races so far in 2016 vindicate his long-held belief that stable regulations are better for competition than constantly tweaking the rule book.
"If you remember what we always said -- even if it is uncomfortable for the commercial rights holder that we've been running away with lots of the races and two championships -- the longer that you keep regulations stable the more the performance is going to converge between everybody," Wolff explained in China. "This is exactly what is happening now. The engines are converging, the teams are converging, the gains we are making are smaller because the curve flattens out, the others are making bigger steps.
"We are having an ideal situation with great racing -- three great races in a row now. Are we capable of reacting quick enough an acknowledging that and reverting maybe to regulations that seem to be OK now? I don't know."
Asked if big changes to the regulations would just lead to another dominant team in control next season, Wolff replied: "Yeah, [if] we're going to change it, somebody else or us are going to run away with the championship next year because it is new regulations and everything starts from the beginning. More downforce, which you won't see just on pure lap time, less overtaking because the wake is much more extreme.
"There is nothing to be sold on that -- there is no selling proposition within those new regulations in my opinion. They should leave it alone. Maybe it is speaking against ourselves because clearly we haven't got the advantage that we had last year but the racing's great and will become even greater if you leave the regulations alone."