3 PU for 2018

[andburg]

Seem's Lewis doesn't like the idea

to paraphrase: almost everyone exceeded the allocated elements this year and driving conservatively to protect the PU kills the racing.

What happens when half the field are penalised?

my imaged scenario;

Fast driver #1 takes on a new power unit because a lot of others have issues and its a circuit with good overtaking possibilities, hes going to qualify ahead of them anyway so after penalties he starts from 12th, on the verge of points. Hes now got a bag full of new components and has a saved a bunch of life on his older engine.

A dominant car/driver could win from that start position without taking a new power unit. The gap between the top cars and the mid field is so big that a Merc/Ferrari starting mid pack is expecting a P3/P4 finish even if it qualifies badly without the other advantages.

I know we've gone through this numerous times but how could they better deal with it?

Maintain the number of power units / remove limits but penalize every new component
Introduce a new component early and any still working units of that component must be handed back
Exclude cars with new power units from Q3 so they cant get too far up the grid before drops?
Fit more than 2 new components of power unit in its entirety and start from the pitlane?

[ZX10R NIN]

With 19 races the engine limit should be 6 we've just seen what this generation of car can do when unleashed that would make for some better races not necessarily overtaking wise but just in the sheer speed & spectacle of watching the drivers pushing these cars through the bends.

[ZX10R NIN]

With 19 races the engine limit should be 6 we've just seen what this generation of car can do when unleashed that would make for some better races not necessarily overtaking wise but just in the sheer speed & spectacle of watching the drivers pushing these cars through the bends.

[ukaskew]

This does nothing to improve the show or the sport. Teams will need the engines anyway, so it won’t save anyone money. It will just mean the farce with constant grid penalties will get worse.

[slipstream 1985]

Should have upped it to 5. Material costs of an extra engine must be negligable to the now completed development costs that were the whole reason to limiting engines.

[LP670]

Be interesting if one of the manufacturers developed an engine capable of a single race (no honda jokes) but had such an advantage over one that has to last 7 races that they could start from the back and still win, would be a great way to stick two fingers up to the FIA.

[rdjohn]

The whole concept of these PUs was flawed from the very beginning. Tokens were dropped, grid place penalties need to be dropped, or seriously rethought, and now this is the final killer aspect.

It will be a huge achievement if Mercedes can do it, but at the expense of the show. Based on the 350 grid places dropped by Renault this year, you can almost discount their customer effort with McLaren as they are still trying to catch up on power loss.

Toro Rosso might as well stay at home until 2021 and our expectations of Max fighting with Lewis will probably be a distant dream in 2019 when RB become a Honda customer.

I also doubt that the supply price to customers is likely to drop by 25%

[sandman77]

the other issue is how are Honda/Renault meant to close the gap to Merc/ferrari if they can only introduce 2 improved spec engines over the course of a year? Its almost as bad the the stupid token idea.

[HustleRussell]

Perhaps the most annoying thing about this, aside from the massive number of grid penalties we're going to see, is that the current engine regulations are just starting to work. There's not much to choose between Ferrari and Mercedes most weekends, Red Bull are just arriving in spite of their not insignificant (but reducing) power and reliability deficit, Honda, too, are catching... all the while the engine costs to customer teams are steadily falling.

And then after four years of performance convergence it's all change again for 2018. And again in 2021.

All they need is stability on engine regs for a while.

Then we regulate the customer supply arrangement to eliminate the performance disparity from the factory team to the customer team.

[Derek Smith]

HustleRussell said:

Perhaps the most annoying thing about this, aside from the massive number of grid penalties we're going to see, is that the current engine regulations are just starting to work. There's not much to choose between Ferrari and Mercedes most weekends, Red Bull are just arriving in spite of their not insignificant (but reducing) power and reliability deficit, Honda, too, are catching... all the while the engine costs to customer teams are steadily falling.

And then after four years of performance convergence it's all change again for 2018. And again in 2021.

All they need is stability on engine regs for a while.

Then we regulate the customer supply arrangement to eliminate the performance disparity from the factory team to the customer team.

What increases costs the most is continual change. My gran was right: keep fiddling with it and it will fall apart.

[Jonesy23]

It's all utterly artificial anyway.

How many development units are you burning through to ensure your race engines are up to scratch?

And when you're building in ever small quantities your costs only go up.

If they want to look at genuine cost savings then this is one place to derestrict.