FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem's been cooking up some wild proposals for Formula 1's future, and Fred Vasseur just gave his honest take on one of them. Ben Sulayem floated the idea of bringing in an FIA-selected independent engine supplier for customer teams, reckoning it'd level the playing field and stop works teams from using power unit quality as leverage over their customers. Sounds nice in theory, but Vasseur isn't convinced it's actually doable.

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Here's the thing, though. Vasseur isn't saying it's impossible to build an F1 engine. Any independent manufacturer could technically do it. The real problem, according to the Ferrari team principal, is hitting the performance targets while working under the cost cap restrictions that now apply to power unit development. Right now, Ferrari supplies engines to both Haas and Cadillac as customers, so Vasseur knows exactly what he's talking about when it comes to customer engine programs.

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When asked whether companies like Cosworth could handle building a competitive Formula 1 engine, Vasseur was pretty blunt. Sure, constructing an engine isn't the complex bit. What's genuinely difficult is delivering the performance levels needed while being constrained by the financial limits the FIA's put in place. Ben Sulayem's also been pushing for V8 engines running on sustainable fuels with reduced electrical components, which Vasseur suggests might be easier to develop than the current hybrid units, but he's skeptical about how realistic the whole proposal actually is in practice.

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The current regulations do require customer teams to receive the same power unit specification as the works team, which is supposed to prevent the exact scenario Ben Sulayem's worried about. But bringing in a completely independent manufacturer to supply a grid-wide engine would be a massive undertaking. With five current power unit suppliers already in the game, Ferrari, Mercedes, Red Bull-Ford, Honda and Audi, adding another player to the mix just adds more complexity to an already crowded situation.

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