Indeed very interesting & funny coming from an "engine guy"
If there is one that’s way out ahead of the others then the FIA will recognise that it has failed, along with the car manufacturers, to come up with adequate checks and balances to prevent that happening.
It’s not in anyone’s interest for one engine manufacturer to run away with the ball. The engine as a differentiator of success on the track isn’t a pre-requisite. The engine is there to do a job, to power the cars around the track. It should be up to the chassis manufacturers to differentiate and the drivers to differentiate between who wins and who loses.
I think the Australians have a name for it, they call it the "tall puppy syndrom".
It does not really pay off, if you try to be better then average, because the powers to be, will bring you back to the smallest common denominator anyway.
This warrants the question, why the engine manufactures don´t simply pool their development budget´s and come up with a common F1 powertrain, because that´s where we will end up when the dust has settled.
It´s funny for an engine guy, to voluntary leave the limelight to the chassis/aero guys.
Which makes you wonder, while the engine manufactures want to do F1 in the first place, and may explains why Mercedes wanted to get involved on the chassis side, with it´s own team.