Engine Unfreeze

[rich1701]

Whiting: "As the existing manufacturers were obliged to homologate their power units by 28 February 2014 it would seem fair and equitable to ask a new manufacturer to homologate their power unit before February 28 2015.

"We therefore consider this to be a requirement for a new power unit manufacturer."

They have to take into consideration Honda's situation here. How many miles have the existing manufacturers covered with their v6 units in 2014? It puts Honda at a big disadvantage and is anything but "fair"

[pastaracing]

If I was one of the motor developer, I should use the last one, in the end of season, to set up in such way that I benefit the most for the 2016 season and homologate this.
In other words, make a motor with a good base for the 25 tokens you can change to next season.
In that way, the 2016 motor has more or less has 57 (32+25) new items to work with.

For Ferrari it should be good to pay a start for Manor/Marussia, then they have more motors to play with

[Skippon]

Although Honda do have the advantage of looking at what Mercedes did on 2014s Mclaren, and then copying the good bits.

[godlameroso]

And even if what they learned was limited, they at least understand the best strategy is to make the most powerful engine from the start, since the FIA will allow you to make reliability upgrades.

[maccafan]

What would stop Mclaren-Honda to take the FIA to court and claim the same paragraph not to deliver the homologated engine on the 28th feb this year? Looking at the letter from Charlie W. there is nothing in the regulation mentioning that date. It is just a FIA view. I hope Mclaren-Honda takes FIA to court and claim the same freedom on the basis of the same "error" in the regulations.

[rich1701]

Quite an interesting read from James Allen.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/01/a ... ules-mean/

[sumiciu]

Quite an interesting read from James Allen.

http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2015/01/a ... ules-mean/

Hello y'all

I was reading this and this thread and I'm realizing that some people (and some media) are implying that Renault, Ferrari and Mercedes could put on the track successive improvements until they "decide to homologate" their 2015 PU and stop improving. While, as I understand it, they should keep their "old" 2014 PU on the track (plus some reliability changes) until the new one is homologated. Meaning that the actual change is that they could choose when to jump from the 2014 PU to the 2015 PU but meanwhile they'd have to pay the price of racing with a potentially "obsolete" PU (at least compared to Honda is everything goes as planned, and compared to Mercedes regarding last year performance of these three constructors).

So it won't make any sense to wait until the end of the season to benefit from this loophole. Or am I wrong about this?

[Andres125sx]

So basically Honda and McLaren will compete with worst part of 2014 and 2015 rules, and none of their advantages.... engine freeze (2014), and 4 PU for the seasson (2015)

Please, someone may explain me how this can be seen as fair?

[hollus]

Not saying that Honda is getting the better end of the deal here, but they did have a year to see the choices of all its competitors, competitors that cannot change all their engine now. They also have performance data from at least one engine, likely from all three in more primitive forms. They know the fuel strategies that were really run and can design the ICE accordingly. They know the top speeds, passing strategies, etc to expect, and can again design accordingly. They also had a chance of plucking engineers that had been involved with each of the three competitor powerplants at the end of 2013.
Essentially they have the chance to show up with the best Frankenstein possible, in a combination that is out of reach for their three competitors.
Again, not saying that this token ban is the right way to go, but there is a reason to not give them the 32 tokens on top of what could well be a head start (or a horrible one, we just don't know).

[lebesset]

at a guess Honda will already be looking for the best lawyers available !
and quite right too !

[windwaves]

NO DEVELOPMENT FREEDOM FOR HONDA

The interpretation that allows Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault to bring in developments over the course of 2015 will not apply to Honda because it is a new manufacturer.

Although the regulations do not specifically state dates for the Japanese car maker to submit its homologated unit, the FIA is standing by its view that it must stick to the February 28 date that the current manufacturers faced last year.

The Whiting note added: "As the existing manufacturers were obliged to homologate their power units by 28 February 2014 it would seem fair and equitable to ask a new manufacturer to homologate their power unit before February 28 2015.

"We therefore consider this to be a requirement for a new power unit manufacturer."

http://www.magnetimarelli.com/focus-on- ... e-upgrades

How could this be fair?

I had hope for this season after two years of frustration....
How exciting would the new season be if mercedes cars will finish the races half an hour ahead of everyone else?

it will not be exciting, except for Merc fans ! But not unfair IMHO. Merc did an amazing job and they should not be made the devils for that. I take my hat off. They have just been fantastic. The other teams need to catch up and my feeling/hope is that Honda has a great opportunity, may be they even are in a better position than the rest of the teams. We shall see. They can do it though, they must !!

[djos]

Whiting: "As the existing manufacturers were obliged to homologate their power units by 28 February 2014 it would seem fair and equitable to ask a new manufacturer to homologate their power unit before February 28 2015.

"We therefore consider this to be a requirement for a new power unit manufacturer."

They have to take into consideration Honda's situation here. How many miles have the existing manufacturers covered with their v6 units in 2014? It puts Honda at a big disadvantage and is anything but "fair"

So aside from the general stupidity of this, surely this means that Honda also get to provide 5 pu's per car for 2015 if they are paying by the 2014 rules?

[Richard]

So if Charlie Whiting says Honda have to follow the same path as the others, then they should get the full 32 tokens in their second year. However they'll only get 25 tokens in their second year.

The other PU suppliers have had a 1 year headstart plus 32 development tokens this season to learn from their year 1 mistakes. How can Honda be competitive against that when starting from scratch? Next year the other suppliers will have used 47 tokens, Honda will only have 25. According to Whiting this is fair and equitable.

[turbof1]

Sometimes I wonder if the fia is run by the local crackhead club or the fifa 2022 WC committee.

[djos]

Sometimes I wonder if the fia is run by the local crackhead club or the fifa 2022 WC committee.

More likely a combination of the two!