F1 engine penalties an "anti-embarrassment regulation" after Honda return struggles - Toto Wolff

Mercedes

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F1 engine penalties an "anti-embarrassment regulation" after Honda return struggles - Wolff

Drivers are docked 10 grid places for a change of PU component with only a five place penalty for repeat changes

Ewan Gale

Thursday 28 October 2021 05:00

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has suggested the way grid penalties are skewed for repeat engine changes is an "anti-embarrassment regulation" based on Honda's struggles upon returning to F1.

Honda struggled for reliability when rejoining the sport with McLaren in 2015 and regularly racked up grid penalties north of 40 places when each component carried a set punishment for being swapped.

Valtteri Bottas took on his third ICE in four races at the United States Grand Prix but was only handed a five-place grid penalty as it was a repeat offence.

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In contrast, Lewis Hamilton was handed a ten-place grid penalty in Turkey for the same change, albeit his first new ICE outside of the agreed allocation provided under the sporting regulations.

This has caused questioning as to why the penalty decreases the more teams infringe, but Wolff said: "I think that's probably like old Honda where you are in a situation and it's going terribly wrong and you need to change engine parts or complete power units then you shouldn't be penalised every single race to go to the back of the grid or lose 10 places.

"So it's almost an anti-embarrassment regulation and I think that's okay.

"Obviously we need to look at that, how we do it in the future but it's biting us hard this year."

Loss of constructors' points won't work - Wolff

One of the debates in the paddock since the introduction of turbo-hybrid power units in 2014 and the vast amount of grid penalties that have ensued is whether to penalise teams with the loss of points in the constructors' standings over penalising the driver.

Explaining why the system in its current guise is suitable, Wolff added: "I think the penalty system on power units is pretty robust.

"What we need to avoid is we are building power units that, in a way, they perform for only a few races.

"If you changed the regulations in a way and said there was no grid penalty for the drivers but only [the loss of] constructors' points, it would still mean that if you are in a fight for the drivers' championship you would just throw engines at that car.

"If we come up with good solutions then it's definitely worth looking at it because I agree, it is confusing for the new fans because, beyond a driver's responsibility, puts him at the back of the grid or five places away, and that's clearly not great.

"But I haven't got the solutions."