Is it fair to punish the driver after an unscheduled engine change?

[alonso11]

Rosberg for instance did a heluva job today qualifiying 6th, yet he get penalized for something he has nothing to do with and will probably leave Fuji empty-handed.

At the end of the day the driver doesnt gain anything by having a fresh engine because every weekend there will be guys out there (just about half of the field) with a fresh eninge anyway. So in my opinion it has nothing to do with the driver, its not their fault, its the team that should be punished.
What I say is, let the driver start from the position he qualified for but his car

a.) cant score points for the constructor's championship
b.) scores only half of the points it normaly would

That way the team has an even greater motivation to prepare the enginge perfectly and the driver isnt punished for something he is not responsible for.

What do you think ?

[BootsOntheSide]

Something like that would probably be fairer, but is it enough of an incentive for teams to prepare perfectly reliable engines (at the expense of speed)? I think in this case Nico's engine may have been damaged in transit, as it worked perfectly in Spa but not in Fiji.

The whole system needs looking at rationally - have engine costs actually dropped in the time it's been in use? Is it more important to have newer efficient fuels powering engines?

[Marbot]

Originally Posted by BootsOntheSide

I think in this case Nico's engine may have been damaged in transit, as it worked perfectly in Spa but not in Fiji.

So it's fallen out of the airplane and landed in Fiji?

[FPV GTHO]

The driver still needs some form of punishment, otherwise cashed up teams like Toyota will simply disregard the 2 race rule and always run fresh engines. Docking constructors points might do the job, but F1 isnt the only category where drivers recieve punishment for equipment not lasting the length the rules mandate.

[trevisio]

There are many factors if F1 that are unfairer to the driver than the engine change penalty - look at the comparitive slowness of the cars most of them have to drive for starters! If they are not in a top 3 teams they will struggle every race - unless it rains......

[Knowlesy]

The engine rule is a bit of a charade. Sadly, it is set to get worse - isn't the idea to move to ten race engines?

It's just so absurd.

[FPV GTHO]

Hadnt heard about ten race engines, i thought they were going to keep making small changes - 3 race, 4 race etc. The gearboxes next year IIRC will have to last 4 races

[johntt]

Originally Posted by FPV GTHO

The driver still needs some form of punishment, otherwise cashed up teams like Toyota will simply disregard the 2 race rule and always run fresh engines. Docking constructors points might do the job, but F1 isnt the only category where drivers recieve punishment for equipment not lasting the length the rules mandate.

True - Allmendinger had qualified in the top 10 at dover last weekend but was sent to the back for having an engine change.

[Knowlesy]

Yes, but your weekend isn't over in that series if you start at the back. There is time to recover and you can overtake.

It is inappropriate for F1 as it basically ruins the weekend for you. You have less than an hour and a half to make up a ton of positions in a category where you can't pass no matter how much you want to.

Still, it is looking like rain tomorrow, so that will help Rosbergs cause.

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by FPV GTHO

Hadnt heard about ten race engines, i thought they were going to keep making small changes - 3 race, 4 race etc. The gearboxes next year IIRC will have to last 4 races

Hope they could transfer that technology to road cars - We'll have more resistent vehicles.

[Mekola]

Originally Posted by Knowlesy

Yes, but your weekend isn't over in that series if you start at the back. There is time to recover and you can overtake.

It is inappropriate for F1 as it basically ruins the weekend for you. You have less than an hour and a half to make up a ton of positions in a category where you can't pass no matter how much you want to.

Still, it is looking like rain tomorrow, so that will help Rosbergs cause.

Then they sould ban all aero systems that block and makes "nervous" the car that is at its back... should be again like in the old times, where the car at the back was "attracted". Remember the 1956 case when Luigi Piotti could help this way to Stirling Moss when he ran out of fuel, and Stirling won the race thanks to this.

Hope the rain could help Rosberg too... Japanese GPs in the rain are very interesting

[Dutton]

Well, I don't really like the long-life stuff, but, if you are going to have it, then you have to punish the driver to make it in any sense viable.

The driver picks his home. F1 is a team sport. The driver benefits from a team that does things correctly, thus should suffer if it does things incorrectly.

If you pick a team that does not do the job, well, that is just your fault for being in the wrong place.