Quote:
Originally Posted by crmalcolm
Which race(s) did Mercedes-powered drivers receive the penalties indicated?
The original PitPass article refers to 25 places for Mercedes??
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No idea, as I said I only converted the stats posted here into more relevant numbers. If someone finds more accurate stats then it's pretty easy to work out the average per car.
Totals don't mean anything because Renault supply 3 times more engines than Honda. So you need an average. It's also unfair to compare actual slots lost rather than penalised if you're wanting a picture of reliability. Mercedes cars tend to be further forward on the grid, so a 5 place drop will always be a 5 place drop. But a Honda is usually near the back, so a 25 place drop for multiple failures could turn out to only be 4 places lost. If you use the actual slots lost, this makes the Honda look more reliable than the Mercedes, when we know that isn't the case. That's why you have to compare the number penalised, because a team may not be able to serve the penalty in full. It also suggests that the engine rules were written without taking into account that there could be such reliability issues, which is a bit short sighted!
I actually mashed my calculator wrongly too. It's 4 for Mercedes, not 6. Pit pass claims 25 places across 3 teams, or 6 cars. 25/6 cars is 4.16, rounded to 4. So according to PitPass stats, Mercedes cars have lost approx 4 places on the grid each throughout the year.