March 20, 2002

FIA introduce one-engine per weekend rule: from 2004 for Formula One™. Other rules include use of Head and Neck Protection System (HANS) will be compulsory in 2003, chasis design rules remain the same till the end of 2004, and rule about stalling on starts.

posted by riffola to other at 02:39 PM - 6 comments

Engine limitation during the event: From 1 January 2004, each driver may use only one engine for the three days of a Grand Prix weekend. Each time his engine is changed during the event, the driver will move back 10 places on the grid. The FIA, in consultation with the teams, will define an engine change so as to prevent the rebuilding of an engine at the circuit. Use of its spare car counts as use of an additional engine.
That's totally stupid. As Steve Matchett said during the race last weekend, the cost of the engine is dictated by the development process, once the die is made, it doesn't matter if they make 10 engines or 100 engines. Also they are not specific about the spare car counting as an additional engine. What if a driver crashes during Qualifiying, if he switches to the spare car, will that count as a new engine? If so will it not be dangerous if teams attempt to repair a damaged car so as not to lose ten spots on the grid?

posted by riffola at 02:42 PM on March 20, 2002

I agree with you riffola, this seems pretty wrong. Can the teams block this regulation? I am under the impression that this engine stuff is not gonna fly with most of the teams. I don't get the idea behind this rule either: is it to diminish the gap between rich and not-so-rich teams? This is a laudable goal, but a utopian one indeed. Hard to put a "salary cap" on a team's budget, I think.

posted by qbert72 at 05:51 PM on March 20, 2002

Actually what sucks is that it's the teams that voted on this, this past weekend. It is supposed to reduce costs for the smaller teams. I don't see how this is going to reduce costs. Engine manufacturers such as Ferrari, BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Toyota, Ford Cosworth and Renault, all have big budgets and resources, they can just use the current team to build reliable engines that will last the weekend, yet be fast. It's the teams like Minardi (Asiatech engines based on 3 year old Ford engines), Sauber (Ferrari customer, uses a year old engines), etc that have all to lose with this move. Next year when this rule is enforced, Sauber will be using this year's Ferrari engines, which are obviously not designed with next year's rules in my mind. So in the end this rule will hurt the smaller teams more.

posted by riffola at 06:49 PM on March 20, 2002

Ugh... I meant the Ferrari's current engines are not designed with next year's rules in mind.

posted by riffola at 06:51 PM on March 20, 2002

I'm really glad they didn't institute the floated idea of limiting practice times. It really would have put the Michelin teams that need to scuff tires at a disadvantage.

posted by machaus at 07:27 PM on March 20, 2002

I agree the 2 day GP weekend would have hurt the Michelin runners a lot, the good thing is that they have enough teams running on their tires to vote against such a move. Apparently Williams and McLaren both voted against the one engine rule, they had 4 votes, they needed 9 to overturn the motion. The teams actually had come up with a solution which would allow them to use two engines per weekend per car, but apparently Eddie Jordan and Tom Walkinshaw were the only two against it, so I am surprised that the one engine rule was made.

posted by riffola at 08:00 PM on March 20, 2002

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