Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/622858
21 Sport maltatoday, Wednesday, 6 January 2016 formula 1 tennis adrian newey laments 'engine dominated' f1 AdriAn newey has described the effects of Formula 1's cur- rent power unit regulations as "very unhealthy", lamenting the performance advantage recently enjoyed by Mercedes. Since Formula 1's latest turbo engine era began two years ago, Mercedes has won 32 out of 38 Grands Prix, with the other six shared between red Bull (in 2014) and Ferrari (in 2015). newey, who has stepped back from his frontline role as tech- nical chief at red Bull to focus on other projects, reckons the sport needs to find a better bal- ance to boost competition. "For me, what's unhealthy about Formula 1 at the moment is that it is engine dominated," newey explained to Abu dhabi newspaper The national. "The chassis regulations are very tight, the engine regula- tions are very free. "On top of that, if you take the engines built by Mercedes or Ferrari, when they supply those engines to their customer teams, the customers don't get the same engine – not in the software any way. "So Mercedes have a very good, very powerful engine. Their cus- tomer teams don't get the same specifications. So it is difficult for their customer teams to beat the Mercedes team. "Ferrari have an engine not quite as good as the Mercedes, but still a good engine. But [it's] the same problem with their customer teams. "Honda and renault, so far, have been quite a long way be- hind. "So we are in the position where, at the moment, only a works Mercedes, and possibly a works Ferrari, win champion- ships and races because it is so dominated by the engine. "i think that is a very un- healthy situation for Formula 1, where only one, maybe two teams, can win. Maybe Honda in the future, but not yet." Serena retires from Hopman Cup match with knee injury WOrld number one Serena Wil- liams retired from her Hopman Cup match against Australian Jarmila Wolfe on Tuesday with a knee injury barely two weeks be- fore launching her bid for a sev- enth Australian Open title. Williams was trailing 7-5 2-1 when she decided not to continue after receiving medical treatment. After pulling out of Monday's tie against Ukraine with inflamma- tion in her knee, the 34-year-old American hobbled through the match before deciding she could not go on. Playing for Australia Gold, Wolfe took the first set as Williams strug- gled to move to her left. "i have some knee inflammation that's going away very slowly. it's going, it just needs a little more time," Serena told reporters, re- fusing to rule out playing in the Americans' Hopman Cup match against Czech republic on Thurs- day. "i'm not making any decisions. i'm just taking it one day at a time," the 21-times grand slam singles champion said. Adrian Newey Serena Williams, knee injury