McLaren has agreed with the FIA how the sport’s governing body will monitor its change from Renault to Mercedes power units for 2021.

Teams agreed to delay the introduction of new technical regulations next year and continue using their current chassis again in 2021 as a cost-saving measure. However McLaren has already signed a deal to change from Renault to Mercedes power units next year.

McLaren will therefore have to make some changes to its current MCL35 chassis in order to accommodate the new engine. “It’s a change of plan for us because we had planned to integrate the Mercedes power unit into the new car for the 2021 regulations,” said McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl. “Obviously a different situation now.”

The FIA will impose limits on how McLaren can adapt its 2020 chassis for the new power unit.

“For sure there will be restrictions in terms of how [well] we can integrate this power unit into the current car,” Seidl explained. “We have agreed together with the FIA that they will monitor very closely that we are only allowed to do the changes that are absolutely necessary to install the Mercedes power unit.

“They [will] monitor closely that we don’t touch any other areas in the surroundings of the power unit, which will give us additional performance gains.”

Seidl said McLaren accepts the restrictions were needed in order to reduce costs by postponing the 2021 rules.

“We fully understand and we agreed to [this] because in the end we need to look at the bigger picture. Which is we need to agree and we support this freezing that is happening at the moment because that ensures maximum cost saving for everyone for this year.”

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2021 F1 season