THE 2010 Korean Grand Prix was one helluva race! Not only did it go down in history as one of the longest GPs ever (2hrs 48mins and some seconds), but typically, the winner was chosen as a result of an engine failure. For those who missed the on-track action, Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel registered a DNF and lost 25 points to Fernando Alonso and Ferrari as a result of an engine failure.
Now why did I say typically? As we near the end of the 2010 F1 season, all championship contenders are on their 8th and last engine of the season. Due to the new engine regulations, only 8 engines per year are allowed per driver and I won’t be surprised if we see many more engine failures as we bring a close to the 2010 F1 season and choose our 2010 F1 Driver’s champion. Let alone choosing our champion, even 6th place fight between Force India F1 team and Williams F1 team is affected by the number of engines used by their drivers. (Rubens Barrichello has used only 7 engines till the Korean GP as compared to Force India drivers Adrian Sutil and Vitantonio Liuzzi).
As per the engine regulations, each driver is only allowed 8 engines per season and the usage of a 9th engine would result in a 10 place grid penalty. As a result, a single blown engine could cost any of our 5 championship contenders their Driver’s World Championship.
Now that we know the implications of this rule on the action on track, let me also discuss the off-track and more importantly financial implications on the racing teams. Ever since performance engines were used in the late 60s, every F1 team has chased the ‘most powerful’ engine.
As a result, the costs of either manufacturing an engine (if you are a manufacturer team) or the cost of buying an engine (if you are a privateer team) would be ridiculously high. While exact costs for engine development may never be known, buying a Renault engine to fit in your racing car in the late 90s would cost you anywhere in the region of $30m!
They say ‘F1 engines are a piece of art’ and may be they are true, because if you manage to blow an engine, the cost of replacing the engine would cost you nearly half a million dollars. (They also say that art is expensive!)
However, in order to cut unnecessary costs on developing performance engines, the FIA, in 2005 introduced these engine regulations. While I have been critical about most of their regulations (remember the single tyre per race rule?), I think the engine regulations were a move in the right direction i.e. to bring down operational costs for the teams and increase their survivability in Formula1.
Purchasing engines, which was rumoured to cost in the region of $20m in the mid-2000s, suddenly dropped to an estimated $7m in 2009. This drastic reduction in costs has seen a slew of privateer teams take to the grid in 2010 – all with Cosworth, which is rumoured to be the cheapest of the engine manufacturers.
So do the engine regulations benefit the privateer teams more than the manufacturer teams? Well, the correct answer to that is an of course no. The manufacturer teams are happy to ‘sell’ their engines to the smaller teams and make those extra few millions.
Well, here’s a classic example of a win-win situation; the teams are happy (lesser costs!), the fans are happy (more teams!), but well are the drivers happy? (I bet Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso would be happiest to use their 9th engine of the season!)
