The system of replacing an engine.

[Nuvolari_the_legend]

I don't exactly understand how the system of replacing or the revision of a engine works.

Here are the rules on the official site: http://www.formula1.com/inside_f1/rules ... ions/8689/

From what I read I understand that the they separate the engine in 6 different elements; the engine, the motor generator unit-kinetic (MGU-K), the motor generator unit-heat (MGU-H), the energy store (ES), turbocharger (TC) and control electronics (CE).

What I don't exactly understand is how they check that the teams aren't cheating.

I also don't understand what an engine is to them because if you only replace half an engine before a race and than replace the other half before the next race, does that count as one new engine?

[Tim.Wright]

I believe they use plastic seals which pass through the block and head together and the block and crankcase together so that you cant just replace half an engine without breaking a seal and the FIA knowing.

In terms of how they keep track of the number of engines, gearboxes etc, I can only speculate that they use like a barcode or RFID tag in the seals so they can tell how many different engines (and other parts) are used.

[Nuvolari_the_legend]

I believe they use plastic seals which pass through the block and head together and the block and crankcase together so that you cant just replace half an engine without breaking a seal and the FIA knowing.

In terms of how they keep track of the number of engines, gearboxes etc, I can only speculate that they use like a barcode or RFID tag in the seals so they can tell how many different engines (and other parts) are used.

If that were so, why could they not just replace the whole engine and just say it is the same one they used previously?

[Tim.Wright]

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that each seal would have a serial number readable by the FIA. If they change the whole engine, then there will be another seal in the new engine with another serial number.

I'm only speculating here but I know at least in GT racing the tyres have chips inside which allow the governing body to track exactly which tyres are on which car. It would b easy to incorporate such a thing into an engine seal.

[Nuvolari_the_legend]

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that each seal would have a serial number readable by the FIA. If they change the whole engine, then there will be another seal in the new engine with another serial number.

I'm only speculating here but I know at least in GT racing the tyres have chips inside which allow the governing body to track exactly which tyres are on which car. It would b easy to incorporate such a thing into an engine seal.

Do you mean that such a serial number can only be read by the FIA because if the manufactures knew those numbers they could simply just give it the same serial number to the new seal.

[Tim.Wright]

I'd imagine so, but I'm only guessing. Its probably based on something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-freq ... tification

Not an overly simple matter to reproduce. Of course the consequences of being caught with a fake seal would be massive, so I think it would be quite risky to try.

[langwadt]

I don't know for sure, but I'd guess that each seal would have a serial number readable by the FIA. If they change the whole engine, then there will be another seal in the new engine with another serial number.

I'm only speculating here but I know at least in GT racing the tyres have chips inside which allow the governing body to track exactly which tyres are on which car. It would b easy to incorporate such a thing into an engine seal.

Do you mean that such a serial number can only be read by the FIA because if the manufactures knew those numbers they could simply just give it the same serial number to the new seal.

The seal is obviously made by FIA so manufacturers can't just make a new one, that kinda the point of a seal

[CMSMJ1]

In MogoGP they have physical seals too - like a lockired tag that joins two components. To split the motor, they have to break the seal...and it is as obvious as that.

I would be fairly sure that some of our tech pics have the seals visible.

Cheating is not easy and the punishment so heavy that I doubt there will be much of it around these systems.