Much has been written about the 2014 Formula 1 engines – sorry, power units – and much more will be written. I’ve already added to the noise about the noise, so I’ll leave that. But there are a few comparisons that I think highlight just how bloody remarkable these things are.

Reliability

It’s easy to take reliability for granted these days. But reading Ayrton Senna: All His Races recently, it really hit home how far we’ve come.

Stuff used to go pop all the time. As an arbitrary example, Gerhard Berger only finished three races in the 1989 season, and still ended up 7th in the championship. They weren’t all mechanical problems, but – hell, not even HRT in their first season had that many problems. And Berger was in a Ferrari.

The speed at which teams have got to grips with reliability this season is remarkable. At the first four races, there were 13, 15, 17 and 20 classified finishers – and not all the non-finishers were due to car problems. That’s with historically low amounts of pre-season testing. Stunning work, really.

Fuel

It’s healthy to remember that F1 has always been preoccupied by talk of engine advantages, technical novelties, managing the tyres, fuel consumption – and often more than one. Senna ran out of fuel on the last lap at Silverstone three years running, for Christ’s sake – most famously in 1991.

So the fact that they’re using something like a third less fuel than last season, and not only getting to the chequered flag, but doing it inappreciably slower, is an absolutely cracking job. Even Renault: they may pale in comparison to Mercedes, but it’s still a massive achievement.

WTCC

The World Touring Car Championship also introduced new engine regulations this season, and I can’t help feeling that they did it while the FIA wasn’t looking. Yes, the engines have more power, but as a result of enlarging the air inlet for the turbo charger, meaning the engine can burn more fuel. More power from more fuel – it’s not exactly an impressive claim, is it?

And this is in a series based on road going cars, so you’d hope would want to concentrate on relevant technology. You know, like fuel efficiency, hybrid engines – the sort of stuff that manufacturers are supposed to be interested in. But instead, it seems to have gone down a fairly blunt avenue to get more power. Doubtless a cheaper avenue though, and that may be the salient point.

But since F1 can afford – just about – to pursue green technology, it’s a mystery why the engine manufacturers – if not teams and sponsors – aren’t making more of the promotional opportunity. Mercedes have at least now put a little bit of their Hybrid production car branding on the rechristened F1 W05 Hybrid. But is that really the best the sport can do?