Juzh wrote: ↑20 Feb 2023, 23:20
Henk_v wrote: ↑20 Feb 2023, 20:47
organic wrote: ↑20 Feb 2023, 16:59
The Monza engine penalty always felt precautionary to me. Like they decided on the weekend itself because they saw they had such a large advantage over the field to do it. There were no rumours at all coming up to Monza nor were there any earlier in the season suggesting Honda would use more than 4
Plus more engines, more data collection about how the power unit is wearing with the new fuel? So they can optimize the reliability again
I also thought it was obvious tactics. Just a defence against any team trying to snatch some points by blowing through their engines in some sort of "hail Mary mode". Thye'd have enough engines to match strategies. Additionally they might have anticipated a " '21 silverstone" on Max. They'd limit the damage by taking the engine penalty at a venue of their choice, making a desperate move less attractive.
This tactic wouldn't work. After exhausting your ICE allowance you can only keep the last engine in your pool of available engines. Last year they took ICE #4 in beligum, then ICE #5 two races later in Italy. This automatically removed engine #4 from the pool, damage or no damage. This is done exactly for the purpose of preventing engine stockpiling.
You can use first 3 engines however you like.
Can you find where it says this in the sporting regulations? I believe that is inaccurate
What you describe is true when taking two excess components in the same weekend. Ie you can't take ice 4&5 in 1 weekend and keep both like Mercedes pulled in 2016. That was what engine stockpiling was and rules were changed to prevent it for 2017 onwards.
During any single event, if a driver introduces more than one of a power unit element that is subject to penalty, only the last element fitted may be used at subsequent events without further penalty. This is to prevent the stockpiling of spare power unit elements.
But you
can build up a pool of components beyond the capacity without losing access to previously taken excess components as long as you're not trying to stack all of your penalties into one weekend