Horner hits out at "nuts" 2018 engine rules
- Published on 11 Jan 2018 13:25
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- By: Fergal Walsh
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has lashed out at Formula 1's engine rules for the 2018 season, claiming that the world championship may be decided on engine penalties. While drivers were allowed use four power units throughout 2017, that figure drops to three for the upcoming season.
Some components of the engine will be cut to just two units for the whole of the year. Throughout 2017, many fans complained about engine penalties, especially when it affected front-running drivers. The McLaren pair of Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne were the worst affected, picking up nearly 400 grid penalties due to an unreliable Honda unit.
Horner believes that there will even more penalties during the upcoming season, and says it could play a major role in the fight for the title: "There will be plenty of grid penalties in 2018. What you'd hate to see is a championship decided on grid penalties. Getting to the point with three engines in 21 races, it is nuts really.
"Contrary to whatever Toto [Wolff] says, his non-executive chairman [Niki Lauda] was arguing for four engines earlier in the year because it is a false economy. Those engines go on a world tour, they are here anyway, and for more races, less engines, it as I say a false economy, and it would be horrible to see a championship decided on engine penalties."
Instead of reducing the number of components allowed throughout the year, Horner believes that it should be raised to five. 2018 will see a 21-race calendar and the Brit would prefer to see more engine components allowed, as was the case in 2016.
"You're still burning these engines up on the dyno, but the reality is it doesn't save any money," Horner told Channel 4. "These grid penalties, I don't think anybody particularly likes seeing them to the extent that they're happening at the moment.
"We want to see the guys out on the track. Obviously don't throw caution to the wind with costs, but for me five engines for a 21-race championship would be a more sensible and logical number," he concluded.
Fergal Walsh
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Replies (13)
Login to replyPauli
Posts: 140
More durable engine=higher unit price. Simple economics for any product. Specially for F1 PU because engineers have to extract maximum performance. In simple terms that means total engine costs will start to raise at some point when reducing number of allowed engines. It would be really interesting to see approximate costs model for F1 PU to know about when reducing number of PUs starts to increase costs.
But I suspect that 3 engines is still enough units to keep total costs reducing still. If it wasn't expected to reduce the total costs I would suspect someone would be already shouting about it to the press.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
The problem is that we didnt see a significantly lower total component consumption in 2017 compared to 2016, despite the reduced amount of allowed allocations, and it wouldnt surprise me if the trend continues during 2018.
RogerF1
Posts: 501
I think it will be costing a significant amount more to build-in more reliability without loss of or even increasing performance. F1 already employs World leading materials and manufacturing technology so to push the boundaries further will cost thousands of man hours of research and testing and new capital manufacturing equipment. It’s not hard to spend millions £/€/$’s to develop uniquely engineered components that competition don’t have.
RogerF1
Posts: 501
I’m definitely with Horner on this. Last season only the top two or three were largely unaffected.
RenaultFM1
Posts: 100
I think Haas and Williams did not have any issues as well. Horner just crying out because he knows that Renault not able deliver yet.
f1dave
Posts: 782
For it to limit cost, which I thought was the reason for the limiting the number of components used, they should be out of the season when the limit is hit, not given place penalties,just out ! How is using eight engines and getting grid penalties limiting costs ?
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Thats sorta my concern about the current regulations too. It just doesnt make sense if costs not only remain the same, but income decrease due to grid penalties and thus potentially lower amount of scored points.
Barron
Posts: 625
But the question is: who pays for the failed engines? The supplier or the contractor?
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
A good question, and I've been wondering about that myself. I personally think the contractor is the paying party, but even if they arent, they will be the ones suffering financially from a failing unit due to lost points scoring chances.
Exhtec
Posts: 1
Surely it should be the manufacturers championship points that are targeted instead of grid positions?
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Its a nice idea, as long as it doesnt harm the drivers. In a sense, I think it should harm the suppliers rather than the teams, but I dont think that'll ever happen.
mcbhargav
Posts: 1,332
After 4 seasons with an Engine formula, its logical to use 4 Engines for the season. If they can't achieve reliability after 4 full seasons, it's not F1 management's or FIA's problem.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
But who does it affect ultimately, aside from the teams? Yup, us. Fewer parts means more engine saving, more engine saving means less legit racing, which in turn doesnt exactly help the show.