Compression ratio Mercedes, Tombazis: “Loophole? I would rather say that the rules are not clear to everyone”

The words of the technical manager of the FIA ​​On Thursday 22 January a meeting was held between the FIA ​​and the engine manufacturers and obviously on the agenda was the issue related to the compression ratio because according to what emerged already at the end of 2025 Mercedes found a way to increase the compression ratio from 16:1 to 18:1 ‘hot’ by exploiting the ‘kinks’ in the regulation. The meeting did not lead to concrete progress on the issue, the FIA ​​had already announced that no immediate interventions were planned before the start of the season. On the occasion of the presentation of the Ferrari SF26, the head of the engine area Enrico Gualtieri said: “We are addressing the issue together with the FIA ​​and we are still discussing it with them. We have had a technical meeting and we will have another in the next few days of the PUAC, the Power Unit Advisory Committee. We place our trust in them to manage the matter in the best way, through the procedures and governance established by the regulations. We have blind faith that this process can be concluded in the next few days or weeks”. Racingnews365.com caught up with FIA technical manager Nick Tombazis after this meeting, here’s what Tombazis had to say: “It was not a meeting where any major decisions were made, or intended to be made. The agenda of the meeting was very clear: to discuss the technical aspects and methodology of measuring the compression ratio, it was a purely technical meeting on how to measure it. It was clear before the meeting to all participants, and during the meeting it was made clear to one or two who wanted to deviate from the agenda that this was not the ‘place’ to discuss exactly what was going on on that topic, once this was clarified, all participants were constructive and spoke as scientists and engineers with a problem to solve, not in terms of opinions on the regulation I don’t think we’re talking about specific violations, we don’t even know what the proposed solutions are. I would say that the word loophole has several meanings, and I think it’s fair to say that there are areas where the rules are not clear to everyone. The main objective is to make sure that the issue is resolved definitively and absolutely before the first race, so that we have no further discussions, but it is clear that we never have any control over anyone whether they want to protest or not. we hope we can provide enough clarity so that hopefully it’s not a necessary step, but obviously, if a team decides to do that, that’s their business. We’re still working on what the solution will be.”