“I think we are not far, even very close” were the words of Fabrice Lom, FIA technical head of powertrains, when asked if they were going to hit the original target of 12 million Euro’s per unit as reported by Motorsport.com today.
A saving of 4 million Euro’s each by 2018 should be considered “not negligible” and is hoped that this cost saving will filter down to the smaller teams.
Another cost saving measure is the move to limit the number of PU’s down to just 3 units per season, and naturally the teams should be rather concerned about reliability issues with subsequent penalties, probably not too dissimilar to Honda in 2015.
Further restrictions include only half the number of power stores (batteries to you and me), control electronics and MGU-K allowed per year, totalling just 2 a piece.
As to how easy it is for the manufacturers to develop an engine with the required level of reliability to last the season and remain powerful enough to compete will surely ensure the 12 million target is a tough ask. Only time will tell.
The problem with fewer allowed PUs is that it will just make it that more important to do bench testing. So the same number of units might still be made, only fewer make it to the cars and more to the test bench.
Another issue is that it can decide the title challenge very early if one particular driver has bad luck with power units (like may be the case for Lewis). A failure in 1 race can cause big points losses in both that race and a later race. So you basically get double whammies.
Window dressing
reliability will have to go up another step, as problems with reliability will hit harder than at present, another effect will impact the introduction of the number of the performance upgrades/improvements that can be introduced during the season.
Why not just have a standard power unit for all teams,but why stop there,have a standard chassis and maybe just one driver for the whole show?..oh ffs, this is supposed to be a prototype race series, how can the sport expect to attract a main engine supplier if they can’t develope their unit? I swore not to be so negative about this year’s competition but really guys your not making it easy,here is an open letter to the FIA….shut up for once and leave our sport alone,FIFA don’t suddenly limit the amount of boots a team can use or change the shape of the ball mid season.
I well remember the other onehalftheformulaonecancer wanting what he and Volkswagen called at that time “a world engine”