There is a certain irony in the fact that Renault and McLaren are admitting unrest over what some call satellite teams and others B-teams, being that both, in their illustrious, long histories, have been involved in such programmes.

Both have expressed unhappiness over the practice, claiming that it will help circumvent the proposed budget cap while also allowing the bigger teams additional political clout.

Citing the relationship between Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, they are also clearly troubled by the Maranello outfit's ties with Haas, concerns that have deepened as the American team has become more competitive.

"I think the way the sport has grown has enabled teams to be able to do new business, if you like, with other teams," Zak Brown told reporters in Bahrain, "and we'd like to see the sport come back to more of a purity of a constructor.

"They've done a great job," he said of Haas, "we all know what the rule book allows and so they've done an excellent job with it but we'd like to see everyone be a little bit more independent moving forward."

Unsurprisingly, Toro Rosso boss, Franz Tost, does not agree.

"If someone, who runs a manufacturer team is complaining that the small teams are faster and better than him, then he hasn't simply done his homework in a proper way," said the Austrian, "because we at a Toro Rosso, we have from Red Bull Racing the gearbox from last year, the rear suspension from last year and parts from the front suspension, most of the front suspension we've done ourselves.

"So, the reason why Toro Rosso is so competitive is mainly because of the fantastic power unit which we have from Honda," he continued. "It seems that others are not doing such a good job and therefore they should not complain and whingeing around. They just should do their job.

"We have a good package together with the car, fantastic drivers and a fantastic power unit from Honda, that's the reason why we are competitive."

"Leave us alone, leave us doing our job," said Guenther Steiner. "You know, we are fine, get back to yourselves.

"I think a lot of these manufacturer teams should also see the opportunities they are given because they want to take something away from us, I see it like this, which was there before.

"We didn't invent it," he continued. "Red Bull, Toro Rosso, Haas, Ferrari didn't invent this. This was there, we took it, this model and they did. If they want to do it they can do it but we are not going to say you have to do it, so we are not the people which want to take something away from the manufacturers.

"If you think your way is the better one, have it like that. Good luck and I wish them well, but if you don't deliver as Franz says, you are yourself your own problem, because you don't do it well, don't blame other people doing a different job for doing it well and trying to diminish what they are doing by making it worse, because in doing that, the gap will grow, because at the moment the teams which have these affiliations with the big teams, they are getting closer to the top three and that's what it should be.

"If we are knocked down, then we create, instead of a two tier society, it will be a three tier," he added. "There will be the works teams, the good ones, then we will have the bad works teams and then there will be us so what have we achieved then for the sport? That is our principle. We don't try to take anything away from anybody. It was there, it was decided, democratically years ago, that this is a model which can work. We read the rules, some other people didn't and here we are, so I think it's a model which is pretty good to go forwards."

"I don't care about what the others could think about the situation but there is a regulation," said Fred Vasseur, "we are pushing like hell to stick to the regulation and to do our best and that's it."

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