First, I think it is good to maybe have a dedicated thread on the current power units without having to embed the discussion within team specific threads. So I hope this thread survives!
Regarding the linked article, it is mostly the thoughts of Francois Castaing (ex Renault from over 30 years ago). In general, I understand where he is coming from, but I think he is out of touch in a few ways.
Random comments...
1. Power Units saving the world by saving fuel. I roll my eye each time someone repeats this and goes on to talk about the amount of fuel used to fly the circus around the world, etc. I am not saying that some PR person at some point didn't say this, but it never was about saving fuel. The same goes for the sound of the unit. While some will disagree with me, it is not the problem.
2. Telemetry. He talks about the number of staff monitoring the data from the car. He is asking for an effective ban other than a few sensors. He is completely out of touch with reality and where the world is going with respect to data.
He proposes a new engine spec (isn't that always the answer!?
), but... totally ignores most everything else that really is the core problem (frozen development, longevity requirements, domination by manufactures and equality for customer teams, etc.)
Richard