Gearbox penalties have become commonplace in F1 in recent times, but there is a solution to reduce them.
It’s always a big shame to see a driver fall back five places on the grid due to no fault of their own.
This was particularly the case in Monza where Paul Di Resta qualified a career best fourth. It would have been fascinating to see how he would have got on from that position.
It is also very frustrating when we see one of the front runners suffer a gearbox penalty, using Lewis Hamilton’s five place grid drop back in China for example (he had qualified on the front row).
So far in 2012 there have been a total of 18 five place grid penalties given to drivers for changing their gearbox.
At the moment a gearbox has to last for five consecutive races. If a change is required during the weekend then that is a five place grid penalty for the driver (however in Hamilton’s case last weekend he is allowed a fresh gearbox with no penalty because it failed in the race).
There have been a number of ideas on introducing a penalty that is less harsh on the drivers. For example you could take points away from the constructor. However there is a far easier option.
A good idea would be to make the gearbox rules the same as the engine rules. At the moment the drivers are limited to eight engines per season. They only take a ten place grid penalty when they use their ninth engine, and then their tenth engine and so on.
That has worked very well for the sport I think. We now see a lot less 10 place grid penalties for engines than we used to see in F1. Teams now manage their engine allocation over the season. If they need to stretch an engine’s life for more races (because they are running short) then they will do that.
In 2005 the championship battle was effectively ruined because Kimi Raikkonen kept on receiving 10 place engine penalties. It seriously reduced the amount of battles we might have seen between him and championship rival Fernando Alonso.
Had the current engine regulations been in place back in 2005 we could have had a closer and more exciting driver’s championship. Chances are Kimi probably would have had to use a ninth engine at some point, and therefore take a penalty. However one 10 place grid penalty, would have been better than the four he actually had to contend with that season.
Teams can also be tactical at which races they use a particular engine. For example a team will try to use a fresh engine for races like Spa and Monza where power is important. They will take an older engine to a track where engine power isn’t so important like Monaco for example.
Vettel was short on engines in the latter stages of 2009, but the team still managed the situation, so that he didn’t have to take a penalty in one of the final races. It was similar story for Alonso in 2010 too.
I would like to see teams limited to five gearboxes per season, and then only given a five place grid penalty if a sixth one has to be used. I think this will result in far less grid penalties, which is what the fans want to see.
We might see a few drivers have to collect a gearbox penalty near the end of the season, but probably no more than that.
Teams could then choose which races each gearbox does. They could avoid one gearbox having to do two or three races which are notoriously hard on the gearboxes.
By making the gearbox rules the same as the engine rules costs are still being saved as the usage is still being very limited. However at the same time this system would prevent too many penalties being handed out, as is currently the case.
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