Shopman

I couldn't quite believe what I was reading... or am I missing something?

The FIA
[QUOTE]WORLD MOTOR SPORT COUNCIL
24.10.2007

san2000

A1 Grand Prix anyone?

s2ook

I read this earlier too and don't really know what to make of it. The FIA are already providing the engine management units to prevent traction control being employed from next season and now this.

I'm in favour of prohibiting TC because it should make races more exciting (albeit potentially more dangerous) and will place a greater emphasis on driving skill.

I'm totally bemused as to why the FIA have decided it's beneficial to freeze engine development. Formula 1 engineering provides a platform to test breakthroughs in technology and the engines have become vastly more efficient in the past 10 or so years leading to the FIA imposing capacity restrictions. If F1 engines become too powerful why not continue to decrease the displacement rather than preventing progress?

Are all the manufacturers using engines with identical outputs or will this become standardised next season? If not, freezing engine development for the less competitive teams seems rather harsh. However, if the engine does become a standard unit, which would make sense if the ECU mapping is the same for every car, this should allow a more level playing field between teams which can only be beneficial for the reason stated previously.

Bada Bing!

The sole reason for doing this is cost limitation. Some teams were spending over $500m purely on engine development, and it was making competitive F1 out of reach of smaller teams.

I don't agree that it's right, but that's why the FIA chose to do it.

soulcrew

does this mean ferrari have a really good engine for next year?

Gaspode

Isn't the whole point of F1 - to have the very best of what is possible?

It would be much more interesting to have the rules as follows...

1/ Here is the safety cage for the driver.
2/ Here are the maximum dimensions for the car
3/ We will provide the petrol
4/ Design whatever you want... Rotary, Supercharged, V10 etc etc
Traction / stabiltiy control, chill the petrol, bendy chassis floors etc


Thoughts?

Dembo

Remember that only five of the teams make engines, so the small teams argument doesn't really fly.

It is a bit of an odd rule; I think they should have worked out something whereby the manufacturers were forced to supply the independent teams for free, or for a capped low cost.

Sadly it seems they've managed to kill off Prodrive.

Dembo

Sounds a bit like Scrapheap challenge.

Interesting maybe, but it wouldn't be any kind of competition then. The team with the most money could end up lapping a minute faster than everybody else.

I think it's pretty incredible that two drivers can drive two different cars around a 3.5 mile circuit and be within a tenth of a second of each other.

lower

Its not a total engine freeze, only on certain aspects of the engine. Engine reliability does seem much better and has there been any major discrepancies on engine power this season?

Interestingly enough, i interviewed a production manager that had worked for Ilmor (mercedes) for 12 years. He was laid off because the engine freeze rules meant almost zero r&d meant no test engines which less than halved their machining work load.

That shows that the costs must have gone down significantly.

Dracoro

Ferrari sell *last years* engines to some of the smaller teams. SO in 1 years time, those smaller teams will have the *same* engine as Ferrari. Could be interesting......