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Porsche races to win and the experience of new (or returning) marques in F1 highlights how difficult, if not impossible, that is out of the box. While Mercedes eventually came to have considerable success as an engine manufacturer, it is has taken years for them to become successful as the builder of an entire car. BMW also found that their efforts at producing both chassis and engine were unsuccessful and bowed out, albeit after expending countless millions, if not billions of dollars.
If Porsche had been interested in a return to F1, the time would have been 3 years ago when the new formula was announced for this year. Their experience in developing high-performance hybrid systems with engine mapping and energy regenerative braking for the new 918 would likely have helped to defray at least some of the development costs of a new power plant for a Formua 1 car. In addition, they would have been starting with a fresh piece of paper at the same time as Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault and they would not have had the distraction of having to field competitive power plants running to a very different formula during the intervening three years. IMO, the time and place for a return to Formula 1 by Porsche has truly come and gone.
Make no mistake - Formula 1 is still relevant and I suspect that the worldwide audience will increase under this new formula. I also suspect that over time, the advantage now being shown by the Mercedes powerplants will be overcome by the other engine manufactuers (although I am not convinced that it will occur this year - especially if the disadvantage is in the gasoline engines, as I believe their design is effectively frozen for the year). Will Renault/Red Bull bounce back as quickly as some here are predicting? Although their chassis/aerodynamics seem first rate, that is something which can be changed/improved over the season by other builders.
The performance of the Renault at Melboune is still suspect, IMO, to the extent that they were not running in accordance with the specified fuel-flow limitations in the formula. We must remember that overall fuel consumption was not a problem for any of the engines (and if that was ever in doubt, it was ensured by the number of laps under full-course yellows). By exceeding the maximum fuel flow there can be no doubt that Red Bull were able to improve the output of the engine. How competitive the powerplant will be when running to specs remains to be seem (although their may be some evidence of that in the car driven by Vettel, which apparently ran with the approved metering device). If so, they are not out of the woods yet.
Brad
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