“They are absolutely 100 percent right,” Ecclestone told Reuters about the need to equalise performance.

“There is a rule that I think [former FIA president] Max [Mosley] put in when he was there that in the event…that a particular team or engine supplier did something magic – which Mercedes have done – the FIA can level up things.

“They have done a first class job which everybody acknowledges.

“What we should have done was frozen the Mercedes engine and leave everybody else to do what they want so they could have caught up.”

Ecclestone also downplayed suggestions that Red Bull owner Dieter Mateschitz wants to leave Formula One.

“Whether they will, who knows?,” Ecclestone added. “Dieter is a sporting guy and I don’t think he’ll stop because he’s being beaten.

“He’s more likely to stop if he was winning.”