The FIA World Motor Sport Council has given the go-ahead for drivers to be given lighter penalties for changing power unit components.
The practice of giving drivers penalties which will be served in the race has been abolished. The most serious penalty a driver can now face for changing power unit components is demotion to the back of the grid.
This change in the regulations will be applied “with immediate effect”, as will a further alteration intended to ease the path of new manufacturers into F1. They will be permitted an extra power unit over the existing allocation of four – a change which Honda will benefit from this season.
Following the WMSC meeting in Mexico it was also confirmed that GP2 Series Limited has offered to act as the promoter for the new FIA Formula Two championship, which the governing body intends will be the “final step in the FIA single-seater ladder to Formula One”.
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Michal (@michal2009b)
10th July 2015, 23:21
Too little too late.
DaveD (@daved)
11th July 2015, 0:16
+1
And definitely too little. It’s absurd for penalizing a driver who has no control of this…and absolutely, CRIMINAL to penalize them if they have to change because of a wreck that is caused by another driver!!!
What kind of CLOWN thinks that is reasonable? Oh, I’m sorry that Maldanodo ruined your race by ramming the back of your car…again…and ruined your race weekend. We’re ALSO going to penalize you for replacing the engine he destroyed on the back of your car for NEXT race. You should know better than to change engines or some such drivel.
Seriously? What the F is that about? Again, I say: complete clowns making the rules.
SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
11th July 2015, 2:44
You’re right, it’s not like F1 is a team sport or anything. There shouldn’t even be engine penalties. May the wealthiest team win, am I right?
David Not Coulthard (@davidnotcoulthard)
11th July 2015, 5:40
@satchelcharge Yeah!
He does have a point regarding MAL though, to be fair.
Nase (@)
11th July 2015, 13:09
Regarding MAL? I don’t think he does. Last time I checked, it was other people driving into Maldonado, not the other way around.
And that sums up my opinion regarding this post: It’s oversimplifying so heavily that it ceases to be insightful.
Engine penalties are there for a reason, after all, and if there is no real penalty for frequent engine changes, you end up in a situation where you can buy performance with money by using fresh engines every other race. That would be excessively expensive, but if I were McLaren, I would consider using my (relative) wealth to have a fresh engine in the race that can be tuned up by a few HP, because it doesn’t have to last longer than a race distance.
My interpretation of this rule change is that it is yet another cowardly bow to fuming fans. If we’re lucky, it doesn’t change anything. If we’re not, it makes things change for the worse.
In my opinion, the most sensible move would’ve been to keep the rules as they are, while allowing penalty-free engine changes when a team can plausibly show that this change is due to an accident or some other completely performance-unrelated damage.
kpcart
11th July 2015, 17:19
@Nase, you are being paranoid, if mercedes started to turn up at every race with a new engine – then this rule clarification would be questioned, also if Mclaren Honda bought a new engine for every race until the end of the year and started getting top 4 results then too would the rule clarification look stupid. all this clarification has done is bought some fairness to the sport, as little as it is given the highly restricted development cycle of engines which make a near impossible paritiy in power – the sport was doomed from the time they introduced the more complex v6 turbos with hybrid and allowed less development then ever seen in the history of F1 – how is there ever going to be a level playing field?? a step like this is kind-of a step forward and show be applauded while the development restrictions are in place. people keep forgetting, it is not the f1 from 10 years ago where development was open, so it was all fair play when there is a performance gap between cars, as the gap at least had opportunity to be filled, unlike the current F1.
DaveD (@daved)
12th July 2015, 0:05
@satchelcharge
So you think because it’s a team sport that Alonso should be penalized because Kim drove into him and destroyed another of his engines?
What the hell does that have to do with team sport?
seriously?
If the rich teams were simply buying a new engine to win every week syre that would be a problem.
but that’s NOT what’s happening now. You’ve got 25 place grid penalties plus poor teams barely hanging on to the grid paying a fortune for each engine and then being penalized even further by losing competitive positions on the grid. Yet they still have to try and attract sponsors with poor results.
Can you truly not see what these rules are doing to teams and drivers in TODAY’S F1?
This is not 1990.
SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
13th July 2015, 17:35
@daved “If the rich teams were simply buying a new engine to win every week syre that would be a problem.
but that’s NOT what’s happening now.”
Exactly. Literally the only thing stopping that behavior is engine penalties.
DaveD (@daved)
13th July 2015, 18:43
@satchelcharge
So, you’re asserting that Red Bull and McLaren would dominate the sport now if they could “just buy a new engine every week” LOL
Think about what you’re saying and how it really applies to the problems in F1 today. There is no connection.
SatchelCharge (@satchelcharge)
13th July 2015, 19:44
@daved Oh no, I never so much as implied that. What I AM asserting is that they’d do it to gain even a small advantage, because they can afford to. It’s pretty simple.
DaveD (@daved)
13th July 2015, 21:20
@satchelcharge
Agreed…when they get back to a point that would actually help them. I’m not claiming that rule isn’t necessary in the long run. When teams get close to parity and they’re looking for an edge then that’s an important rule.
But enforcing it right now when Mc-Honda burns through an engine every 1.5 races and Renault is not much better is damaging the sport.
They need to have the intelligence to know that NOBODY is gaining an advantage right now by spending on new engines. Merc is still using their second engines for the season because they simply don’t need to do more.
So what is it gaining the sport to give out extreme and silly penalties to McLaren or RBR right now when they’re just trying to get through a season…not gain advantage.
What does it gain the sport to disadvantage them even more compared to the front runner teams in 2015? When they engines become stable and competitive again? Sure. But that time is clearly not now.
anon
11th July 2015, 9:26
@daved, it’s not as harsh a penalty as some other series levy – in the World Endurance Championship, using an extra engine incurs a three minute stop and go penalty at the start of the race, essentially guaranteeing that a driver will be two laps down before the race begins.
Sensord4notbeingafanboi (@peartree)
10th July 2015, 23:26
This is a backtrack. We heard about this possibility in Silverstone, I think the retroactive amend ain’t going to bodge Honda but it’s reasonable, what’s not reasonable is to encourage changing Pu’s.
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th July 2015, 0:31
F2 to be promoted by GP2 org. is Totd actually doing something to get the FIA relevant in F1 again by having F2 at GP events and/or eventually replacing GP2, or is this another FIA sellout to Bernie and co. ?
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
11th July 2015, 3:43
@hohum Is GP2 just going to rebrand itself as FIA F2? Else how would it run it’s ‘direct competitor’ as second rung in the ladder?!
@HoHum (@hohum)
11th July 2015, 23:37
@fastiesty, that’s the question, what’s the answer?
Iestyn Davies (@fastiesty)
12th July 2015, 5:17
@hohum Maybe it’ll run it into the ground, heh. I’d imagine old spec GP2 cars? Maybe they still have the old GP3 cars lying about somewhere..
marcus (@wombat1m)
11th July 2015, 11:44
It’s a good move but McHonda appear to be going through about 1 engine per 1.5 races (maybe slightly less races but I haven’t done the maths) so they’ll still be at the back except for about one time
Iosif (@afonic)
11th July 2015, 15:37
They are at the back of the grid anyway, starting 14th or 20th doesn’t really matter if they pick up the pace. The old penalties were too harsh, you were not only starting last but had to serve an extra penalty, dropping you futher back from the pack.
GT Racer (@gt-racer)
11th July 2015, 21:33
I still don’t see the point of bringing back F2 or renaming GP2 to F2.
If they introduce F2 alongside the existing categories then it just confuses the ladder series by splitting the talent pool further.
And if you rename GP2 to F2 whats the point really because it changes nothing & at this point the GP2 brand is more widely known & probably more prestigious than the F2 brand.
F2 just seems like a completely pointless series to me at this point.