Qualifying engines

[Minardi fan]

This came to mind once more thanks to the thread about changing the championship points.

Isn't time the use of qualifying engines was banned? If you are trying to qualify for a Grand Prix, then surely you should be using the engine you will be racing with in the race itself. Smaller teams ie. Minardi and Prost cannot afford to run qualifying engines and are therefore at an even greater disadvantage than normal.

Granted, stopping the use of qualifying engines would not change much, but it would increase the competition more.

[Minardi fan]

And I thought you lot had opinions...

[Gt_R]

I thought its pretty okay to have qualifying engines though. Banning it would not cause a significant change in the grid positions, merely closing up the field. Furthermore, not only do teams come up with qualifying engines, they even come up with many qualifying parts, like qualifying wings, etc.

Perhaps to make races more exciting, we should slot in a 5 lap race(grid order fixed by qualifyings)which comes after the Sunday warm up (reduced to 30mins). The result of the 5 lap race would decide the grid for the proper races.(sort of like Truck racing and some other formulas)I'm sure the starting mayhem would shuffle the grid somewhat to encourage more overtaking during the races, and be of an advantage to lesser teams.

[Billy_Hunt]

Serious question how different are they ?
I thought they were basically the same engines with alot of tweaking.

[Gt_R]

*grin* frm what i know, i think so too...

At least, in Ferrari's case, their qualifying engines are usually the next improved racing engines which have yet to prove their reliability in race conditions....

[Minardi fan]

Qualifying engines usually have more bhp. Banning them would make some difference because the field is so close anyway.

[Valve Bounce]

How on earth can qualifying engines be banned? How can anyone technically define a qualifying engine from a race engine? A team can simply say that after qualifying, they found an oil leak, or mysterious problem, or whatever with the engine used in quals, and so they have to change the engine. Lets face it, the only way to ban qualifying engines is to seal an engine before the weekend starts and stipulate that the car must race the entire weekend with that one engine. Then what the heck are you going to do when the engine blows up during practice? What if the gear box needs to be replaced because a seal is leaking? These guys can rebuild an entire engine in short time, and to say that you are stuck with the one engine, you will end up banning all work on the engine during the weekend. After you answer some of these questions, then perhaps we can discuss banning qualifying engines, which in my mind is not a major issue in F1. That Prost or Minardi cannot afford qualifying engines is tough luck - all the works teams can, and the front half of the grid would hardly be affected by the use of qualifying engines. I saw your original post, but I realised it would be futile to come up with a positive opinion because it is simply not workable to ban qualifying engines, or engine changes, or work on engines during a race weekend.

[ma]

It actually is quite workable - it was done for years at Indy pre-Irl. The rule stipulated that you must start the race with the same engine you qualified with. If you had to change the engine before the race, for ANY reason, you went to the back of the grid.

Simple, and very effective.

[Valve Bounce]

OK You start the race with the same engine. But!! How much work is permitted on that engine?? These guys can start with the same engine, and simply change the parts to change from Qualifying specs to race specs.

[ma]

Easy & cheap answer: Depends on what the organisers want to control.

If they want to assure that no special internals are used & swaped out,all they have to say is that the heads and pan cannot be removed. Only the exchange of fluids and control electronics are permitted. Change anything else and you start at the back of the grid.

Of course, the challenge then becomes how to build a motor that can be disassembled thru it's sides.....

[neutral]

After reading the first response by Valve, how can someone rationally justify the exclusion of qualifying engines? The potential costs would far outwiegh the benefits. The amount of scrutineering would increase and suspicions/accusations of cheating would inevitably follow. All this to make Minardi 2.8 seconds slower instead of 3 on Saturday.

[Valve Bounce]

Hey Neutral, I just though tof something else. Do qualifying engines have different computer settings for fuel management, revs control, and valve timing?? I have never thought much of qualifying engines before.