Motor Penalty Question

[Casper]

I am sure there is somewhere I could find it but I haven't a clue where. What would happen if a PU/motor/gearbox was damaged beyond repair in an accident/fire etc. Would the driver suffer a penalty? Surely not.

[Richard C]

Too busy to dive into the regulations right now, but I suspect there might be some type of force majeure clause. But I would expect it would have to be something major (large factory fire, loss of transport aircraft at away race) and not something like a pit lane/paddock fire given the ease of orchestrating minor but destructive disasters.

Richard

[Casper]

Thanks for the reply Richard. My question relates to a race/track incident not transportation or manufacturing. I know it is improbable but stuff happens sometimes and surely it must be allowed for.

[Richard C]

I had extra time at lunch, so I did a quick scan of the 2014 sporting and technical regulations and I saw no allowances mentioned to handle accidental damage to a PSU or gearbox. It seems that article 28 of the sporting regulations is the relevant document. The sporting regulations have a few places that they mention force majeure (and it is usually up to the stewards to make this designation), but there are none in article 28. So as written, it seems that once the PSU item or gearbox has had an FIA seal applied it must be treated like gold!

I do however suspect that regardless of how the rules are written that if a catastrophic accident severely impacted a given team (terrorist attack, crash of transport plane, etc.) that some type of arrangement would be made, but still with some type of penalty (in fairness to the other teams). Again, I think "minor" accidents that occur in the pit, paddock, factory, etc. are too easy to manufacture (i.e. abuse) and would not get any type of special extra allowance. So don't accidently set your engine on fire in the pit!

Richard

[Casper]

So is a motor/gearbox unit was damaged beyond use in an accident there is no allowance in the regs? That will be an interesting day if it happens. Thanks for your research BTW.

[TrapezeArtist]

Originally Posted by Casper

So is a motor/gearbox unit was damaged beyond use in an accident there is no allowance in the regs? That will be an interesting day if it happens. Thanks for your research BTW.

It has been happening, for several years. If I'm quoting this correctly a gearbox has to last at least 5 races before it can be changed. (It's something like that.) Several drivers have suffered grid penalties due to having damaged a gearbox in a practice or qualifying accident. Gearboxes are vulnerable when a car takes a hefty sideways whack on the rear suspension and the driveshaft is punched into the gearbox.

[Richard C]

Originally Posted by TrapezeArtist

It has been happening, for several years.

Absolutely. I would say that "on track" issues are 100% fair game and the focus of the regulations. For example if they said you could only have one gearbox all season, you can be sure they would engineer them to be even stronger than they are now and that side impacts to the drive shafts would potential involve telescoping shafts or other methods to protect the gearbox (I assume those impacts are damaging the differential and maybe the suspension mounting points). As a side note, the Mercedes solution involves a carbon "carriage" for the "gearbox". So the "gearbox" slides into this carriage and the carriage also holds the suspension, rear crash structure and wing mounts (which are usually on traditional F1 gearboxes). This carriage is not limited by the rules, so if it is damage it can be changed without penalty. I don't know if other teams do the same. I don't think any (or many) do.

Anyhow, I took the spirit of the original question to be for issues off track. Basically once the car leaves pit lane and is in the garage. What happens then? The regulations talk to methods to secure the engine (plates are installed over the exhaust ports to ensure the engines are not fired up and tested) or disassembled and repaired (via various FIA seals).

Richard

[Casper]

Originally Posted by Richard Casto

Anyhow, I took the spirit of the original question to be for issues off track. Basically once the car leaves pit lane and is in the garage. What happens then? The regulations talk to methods to secure the engine (plates are installed over the exhaust ports to ensure the engines are not fired up and tested) or disassembled and repaired (via various FIA seals).

Richard

They must have read Smokey Yunicks book, he famously re-built a motor without taking the heads off because seals had been applied (from memory).