Mercedes denies blocking engine rule changes

Mercedes has hit back at Bernie Ecclestone’s claim the German carmaker is "killing" formula one.

The F1 supremo had made the comments in claiming that as he tries to fix the controversial engine regulations, dominant Mercedes is playing a spoiling role.

But Niki Lauda, the Mercedes team chairman, takes issue with Ecclestone’s view.

"We agreed to the token rule about developing in the season," he told Auto Motor und Sport.

"We gave the green light so that Honda gets the average number of tokens of the other three (suppliers)," Lauda added.

"And we would also not be opposed to extending the engine allocation from four to five. That is even though all three measures are against our interests.

"So I don’t think Bernie can really accuse us of blocking everything," he insisted.