F1 Ending Engine Restrictions

Formula 1 has made plans to restrict engine development for 2017. Various teams have agreed on the move, but it is one of the complicated systems that need to be officially ratified. Mercedes has been dominating the F1 since it introduced the turbo hybrid engines back in 2014. This has led the company to win the contractors’ and drivers’ championships in the past two seasons. For the sake of fairness, freeing up development is meant to allow the rivals to catch up. The current ‘token system’ which has limited what can be done to the engines and was only aimed at keeping the costs low. However, figures now show that the method has led to unnecessary complexity and restricting the manufacturers to make improvement in their engines.

To understand why the system need changes, it is important to comprehend how the token system work. When turbo engines were introduced in the market, the in-season development was banned. Therefore, the manufacturers were increasingly limited to make changes over the winter as years went by. There was a necessity to divide the engine into 66 parts, each part of the engine was then ascribed up to three tokens depending on the influence in the performance. In that case, all participating companies were then given up to 32 tokens to develop engines in 2015. Although the original plan aimed to reduce the tokens to 25 by 2016 and three by 2020, all teams have agreed to scrap the whole system altogether for 2017.

Even if it has been ditched by the same manufacturers who initially agreed to it in a bid to prevent the spiraling costs, they have decided that it has many flaws. One is that any disadvantage that may affect the engine at the start of the season will lock it for a year with no known way of reducing it. Secondly, was the ever-tightening series of restrictions which were being introduced year after year making some manufacturers to have permanent advantages while other having permanent disadvantages a factor that has adversely affected the auto racing betting industry. Lastly, it discouraged new entrants in Formula 1 by making it less attractive due to the same restrictions as those already taking part without the benefit of experience gained by current participators.

The attempt to make changes in the system was reached when it was known Mercedes had significant advantage in 2014. In 2015, Ferrari discovered a loophole in the regulations which helped to implement the in-season development. Therefore, it has paved a way for in-season development in 2016 while the number of tokens allowed by each manufacturer will be increased to 32. In 2017, drivers will be limited to four engines per season and the only one restriction to remain in development. The restriction is that it is only when a team changes one of the six elements which make up the engine’s power unit that they will be allowed to fit new parts. The six elements include a turbocharger, control mechanics, energy store, internal combustion engine and the two motor generator units.

Improving competition is a good thing because it is viewed as fair and allows betting companies to participate in the competition. F1 betting is a common practice in the betting world. Betting on racing cars is based mainly on the brands fans love and fairness is a big factor to allow this participation.