Ferrari replacing both cars' engines

No penalties but wow.

Better now than during the race though, but certainly its a huge blow to get this early on.


....During testing, didn't alonso's car break down once?

 

Erring on the side of caution, or is there a bigger concern, I'd like to think its the former as there is no penalty.

 

Nope. I don't recall any of the Scuderia's engines breaking down. I know they purposely let the car run dry, just to see how many laps it could squeeze on fumes, before towing it back to the pits.

Maybe it's overheating? Look at the sides of the car, near the exhaust outlets. Notice there's some cuttings in the bodywork, something i didn't see during testing.

 

How can there be no penalties ? Mind you, I'm not complaining , but doesn't this amount to having 'qualifier' specials ? l

 

8 engines allowed for the entire season. Only when all 8 are gone do they get penalties. Hopefully that won't be by Malaysia...

 

guess you don't start from pit lane or take a grid penalty any more this year? seven to go is not really the way to start the season...

Carol

 

Does that mean all of the teams are allowed to switch engines after qualifying, as long as they stay within the eight per year ? Wow. ;o

 

IIRC that's what Vettel was doing last year at the end. He managed to get to the end of the season without penalty.

Or I could be screwing up the rule completely. My buzz isn't comletely gone yet

Anyone else know if that's definitely the rule?

 

That is what a lot of teams were doing last year. Allowed them to have a fresh or fresher engine for the race. Then as the engine got more miles it was used for practice and qualifying.

 

Hey, if we're going to have problems let's shake them out early rather than later in the season.

 

So engine management looms large early. In the past engines were to last two races on average. Hmmm.

 

Regardless of how many miles you put on an engine in off-season testing or testing on a test bed in the lab, nothing is like race conditions.
Maybe they had some test pieces in, found out they didn't work as designed, and reverted back to something else?

 

Not too big a worry, these two are now put on the shelves and used on Fridays. There's no major penalty if they let go on a Friday aside from some lost running time and it preserves what other engines are available.

 

Is that the loophole in the engine regulation which teams can exploid ? Great info !! I guess we may see a few engines letting go on Friday practice this season then from all teams then.

 

On Speed, the explanation was that they found some sand in the air filter and wanted to go on the side of caution to avoid an engine blow-up.

 

One report in Manipe F1 has Renault lobbying for the right to modify their engines due to reliability issues already.

 

If I understand correctly, #1 engine can be reused in any later race. Can anyone confirm?

 

See the quote below.