Formula One has always been about pushing the boundaries. As motorsport goes, it is seen to be the pinnacle, the ultimate engineering challenge. Legend has it that, if you were to put a Formula One car upside down on a ceiling racing at full speed, it would stick there, such is the perfection of the car’s aerodynamics. Only the laws of physics stop F1 cars from racing round 90 degree bends at full speed.
The same has always been said of the engineering. In 1992, Nigel Mansell won the world championship in a car that the others simply couldn’t touch. It had adaptive suspension, antilock brakes, traction control – it was untouchable, and the Brit won the title by the middle of the season, such was the dominance of the Williams F1 car.
But since 2004, in an attempt to curb the ever-spiralling costs of competing in Formula One, the rules have stated that F1 engines must last two races. If a driver had to change his engine before qualifying of the second race he would suffer a ten-place grid penalty (in other words, if he qualified 2nd, he would start 12th) but if he had to change his engine between qualifying for the second race and the race itself, he would have to start from the back of the grid.
A tweak in this rule has been announced this week, giving drivers and teams a little bit of respite at the start of the 2008 season.
Team bosses met with FIA President Max Mosley last Friday to discuss a change in the rules to allow a little bit of leeway when it comes to changing engines.
Provided that the alteration to the rule is ratified by the World Motor Sports Council, teams – and therefore drivers – will be allowed one engine change per season without penalty. To govern this, the suggestion is that each driver will be allowed his first engine change of the season, at whatever time it may occur, without penalisation of his qualifying performance.
In a letter to each team following the meeting, Mosley wrote: “it was agreed that each team could have one engine failure per car without penalty during the 2008 season. This would be the first engine failure suffered by each car.”
This rule change still needs approval from the WMSC but, once sanctioned, drivers can face their first engine blow-up without worrying about penalties. And you can bet one or two teams might use this to strategical advantage, especially if they don’t suffer an engine loss until later in the season.
