Engine allocation query

I've been searching for this one F1 sites but so far haven't found an answer, I wonder if anyone in here "knows" this?

This year, drivers are permitted an allocation of 8 engines to last the whole season. If they exceed this allocation and need to use a nith engine, then they must take a 10-place grid penalty.

But what about drivers who have switched teams mid-season? e.g. Giancarlo Fisichella - if he has used x amount of engines in the season at Force India, does he take this total to Ferrari, or does he inherit whatever was used by Massa/Badoer before him?

I should imagine that it's the latter option, although this is quite harsh on drivers who are 'kind to their engines' if they switch teams, having to take over somebody else's problems. But I've not yet found any official ruling on the matter - can anyone direct me to one, please?

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Drivers inherit the engines the previous driver had, so Fisichella picked up where Badoer and Massa left off.

It's car specific more than driver.

Whether a team can swap drivers numbers if they only have 1 driver challenging for the title, I've no idea.

It's very difficult to be hard on an engine with all the electronics on them. Problems such as those seen at Red Bull and those that Kimi always seemed to get are more likely down to small installation differences that have gone unnoticed between cars. I know McLaren were investigating whether Kimi's mechanics were doing something different, or in a different order, to those of the sister car. I can't remember if his problems kept coming afterwards or not though.

Just picking up on something you said there, I think a better idea would be to allow each TEAM a quota of 16 engines per season. Since the installation of the engine is absolutely nothing to do with the driver, it seems harsh to punish the driver when they fail. If each team had a quota of engines, then they could use them between their two drivers far better than each driver having only his set allocation.

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But then you would potentially end up with team favouring if a single driver was in contention for the world championship, with the 2nd driver either plodding around like Vettel or not plodding at all. The less encouragement there is for that the better.

What about, this, if say driver qualifies, say 15th, changes his gearbox getting a 5 place grid penalty. Can he also change his engine as well and this way not get a penalty as he will be starting last anyway? If yes, then front runners can do this when ever they have bad qualifies and starting from the end of the grid and thus having an advantage later on with fresh engine, no?

Yes, it is conceivable for teams like Toro Rosso to change their engines every single race and start from teh back of the grid without any real penalty. However, why bother when the engines are designed to last longer anyway?

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Locke Cole Wrote:
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> Yes, it is conceivable for teams like Toro Rosso
> to change their engines every single race and
> start from teh back of the grid without any real
> penalty. However, why bother when the engines are
> designed to last longer anyway?


for the backmarkers yes. But what about races when Maclaren or Brawn had bad quali, they could have just got new engine which would help them later in the season?

Well, you can't choose to use a 9th engine in your fourth race for instance. That idea would only work if you are already on your 8th engine of the season. Before that whatever engine you use will be part of the 8 engines you get. So you can't plan ahead like that.

gin Wrote:
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> What about, this, if say driver qualifies, say
> 15th, changes his gearbox getting a 5 place grid
> penalty. Can he also change his engine as well and
> this way not get a penalty as he will be starting
> last anyway? If yes, then front runners can do
> this when ever they have bad qualifies and
> starting from the end of the grid and thus having
> an advantage later on with fresh engine, no?

This is what happened with Heidfeld. He was put to the back of the grid for having an underweight car (knowingly or not) and the team put a fresh engine in it thus using a 9th engine. Because they were starting last, the penalty applies but isn't visible.

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