Engine Penalties

[Rob]

Right, with all these penalties coming into action now. Should the driver be penalised if PUs break down/blow up, or is it fair as he part of the team?

I, honestly think it isnt fair on the drivers. The teams, should take a, say, 2 or so points penalty. Comes off the WCC points. But, then what do you do if the team(s) have no points at all? :Hmm

[Greig]

Taking points of WCC won't work as the teams are really all about winning the WDC no matter what anyone says :-)

[Nova]

There should be full development..no penalties...the racing itself is
so boring that it IS the penalty.

[wisepie]

There should be full development..no penalties...the racing itself is
so boring that it IS the penalty.

+ 1, as long as it applies just to engines, the drivers should still be penalised if they commit an 'offence', but these 10-25 place grid drops are ridiculous.

[Hornet]

Engine penalty system is certainly not ideal from a competition perspective. In a normal situation, the punishment of reliability issues is that a driver cannot finish the race and take the win or points, and it ends there. Whatever happens at a race only affect that race. But with the engine penalty system, it means that whatever happens at a race will affect all the other races in the future, and so the teams will have to think about the future.

This makes a single race less important when compared to the long term engine strategy that spans over the entire season. This is where we'll get things like teams giving up on a race and retire, or drivers giving up a fight to conserve their engine/gear box for the future. Drivers cannot just "race and have fun" because you will be dooming future races if your engine lifespan is shorten.

Furthermore, if your luck runs out on pit stop, it only affects that single race for example. But if your luck runs out on engine reliability, your championship could be over. Therefore, engine reliability plays a very big role, and I think it's unbalanced that way. Reliability always matters, but it should not be that big of a thing that overshadows everything else. Otherwise the championship will be all about reliability, and that's not good.


Unfortunately, I don't see any viable solution to this, as we also cannot ignore the cost issue, and the whole reason why we went down this road is because of cost. Ideally, 1 engine per weekend is the best system, as whatever happens stay at that weekend only, and doesn't affect your entire season. But with the cost issue in F1, I don't see teams ever agreeing to go back to 1 engine per weekend.

[Nand0Nand0]

Can we have an option that says no need for additional penalties to either the team or the driver?

If the team/driver have suffered an engine failure that's enough of a penalty in itself IMO.

[wacc]

Some team could just develope PU that lasts say 2 races but is much more powerful. Would it be good to win a WDC this way? By the state of the current rulles they have to penalize the drivers too.

[AfterLife]

Penalties are harsh and if FIA want to continue with harshness, In my opinion, instead of grid penalties, drivethrough penalties, stop and go penalties and starting from the pitlane penalties, just add time penalties after the race. By adding just time penalties after the race, the competition and thrill remain during the race and penalties won't destroy close competition.

[Brembo]

F1 fans are from race 1 watching for their driver to win WDC. If Seb winds up WDC this year and Merc WCC, who here would really complain? Most fans count up driver points every race, then glance over to WCC points. I believe team techs. are truly responsible for pu survival in the end. Drivers give them input, then drive what they get next race.

[Tobes]

Taking points of WCC won't work as the teams are really all about winning the WDC no matter what anyone says :-)

Yeah, except money from Bernie is distributed to teams based on their points, if the teams lose points for team mistakes like engine/gearbox penalties, or botched pit stops then they would be hit financially, think that could work... :-)

[Nova]

Can someone tell me, just where are the teams saving money using this formula engine?
It looks like it is much more expensive than the developed and highly reliable V8's were.