Ferrari decided to use 4 PU's this year out of allowable 3. They also confirmed to be using their new PU2 at high power settings to fight Red Bull in Miami... Penalità Ferrari: sulle F1-75 verranno utilizzati quattro motori (formu1a.uno) I do think pretty much all teams will be using an extra engine. Would be funny if they all do it on the same track just to piss the FIA off..
Yes, and I don't think the FIA is tackling it correctly by dishing out grid penalties. They should penalise the team, but not the driver. That's why no grid penalty for the driver, but points deducted from the team score would seem fairer to me.
Not sure on this:: It could be the way a driver is driving that runs the engine more ragged than <say> his teammate. But I suggest that a points fine would lead to fewer penalties overall--simply because the teams have something to lose and thereby a motive to do something about it.
The power unit of a F1 car is much loaded with electronics that I doubt a driver can have an influence on its reliability. Maybe I am wrong?
Only thing that could be a legitimate alternative would be to remove some constructor points...but then, presumably that penalty isn't that severe either, and teams will simply throw loads of new engines in their cars, so long they win the driver title (the one that actually gets remembered). In the end I think driver penalty is the only penalty that makes the most sense...right now with the expense of an engine, to have it taken out of a teams budget is lunacy (€15 million for a complete engine). No penalty would mean new engines every week or so as well...back to days off old where it's just teams throwing endless money for the smallest edge. Best alternative would be much cheaper engines...even sticking with the base turbo V6 that would be very possible.
I would have to think there are multiple failsafes in place. Imagine an extra downshift by accident blowing an engine apart?
The sensor failings we see drivers have quite often are exactly that...hence we hear the engineer tell the driver to swtich to position whatever, select a number then press Fail or whatever procedure they have in place. That's their quick fix to reset/ignore sensors. If we had basically throwaway engines....all this expensive crap on it wouldn't be needed anymore and thus make it all much cheaper and much easier to follow a race/season.
To a certain degree, yes. The marketing of having a WDC far outweighs the little bit extra you get from TV money.
With ex-RBR aerodynamicist Dan Fallows and ex-Alfa engineering director Luca Furbato on board—and likely having breathed on the B-car—this could be good. Hopefully just good enough to beat the Merc.
Dan (allegedly) only started a few weeks ago so that would be impressive, haha. But we all know what ''gardening'' leave really means in F1. Maybe he worked from home
Red Bull have spend around 18% of their development budget so far. Spain updates will make the car lighter but not ideal yet. Another 7KG to come (unsure if this 7kg is included in the 3-5kg Barcelona reduction or not). Likely a large update in Silverstone. Ferrari to bring new floor with Red Bull esque skirts to try and prevent porpoising. The intriguing upgrades Ferrari and Red Bull are set to bring to Spain | RacingNews365
Marko thinks Ferrari have spent 1.75 million against their budget cap due to Sainz crashes. No way of proving Marko's "alleged" theory.
They all have a general idea what a crash causes damages dollar wise. I do think 1.75 is a little on the high side, I'd be surprised if the damages thus far total a million.
With the cars 200 Kg over what a reasonable weight limit could have been nothing is optimal when it is 25 heavier than necessary.
People are way, way too focused on how many upgrades a team is bringing, rather than how purposeful and effective they are for the car. Mercedes barely upgraded their car after Silverstone, while Red Bull continued to bring upgrades every other weekend, and most of those upgrades did nothing for the performance against Mercedes. It was actually a mistake, because Mercedes were learning better and better setups to improve their straight line speed. Ferrari made the same mistake in 18', bringing upgrades that actually made things more complicated did nothing for performance, and the team had to chase the setups, before electing to remove the upgrades all together. Red Bull can improve their car no doubt, but their main issue is weight and not being able to get the downforce Ferrari can, while the issue for Ferrari is porpoising effecting their top speed at the end of the straights. Ferrari will bring upgrades to the floor in Barcelona, probably their new rear wing for Baku and Canada, then sometime latter a new rear suspension and MGU-K unit for latter in the year. Beyond that, hard to say if Ferrari have any intention developing beyond that. Ferrari seem to be more for a targeted approach and playing with setups weekend to weekend. Red Bull will upgrade in Barcelona and Silverstone, and I'm not sure they'll be able to do much more after that.
