Formula One ( F1 )

It's the whole package that determines the top speed, but I wonder if engine suppliers have to provide the same spec to all their customers? I'd be surprised if McLaren didn't get the same as Mercedes. Mercedes also have their trick rear wing which helps top speed when the DRS is open.

3 of the 4 suppliers have teams all through the field whereas neither of Cosworth's two teams are competitive - although Toro Rosso (Ferrari) and Caterham (Renault) aren't exactly mixing it at the front.

I'd be incredibly surprised if it wasn't in the contract that the engines they buy have to be the same as the engines that the manufacturer use for their team. And since development has been frozen, there's no difference in upgrades either.

It's true that the Mercedes front wing DRS helps with the top speed, but since they've come into F1 they have always been much higher up in the speed traps than their race performance would suggest. Force India have a similar trent.

I still find it hard to write off the Cosworth completely without some solid data. Caterham haven't jumped that far forward despite going from Cosworth power to Renault power. The same engine used by Red Bull, Lotus and Williams. One has won 2 GPs this year, another has won 1, and the other is looking likely to win some before the end of the season. While F1 is a sport about chasing thousandths of a second, the difference between a good aero setup and a bad one is astronomically larger than a good engine and a bad one. If a team is doing badly it's almost certainly down to a bad aero package than anything else.