Powertrain Components Usage 2015

sushifiesta

Champion Elect
Contributor
In the new V6 regulations the number of engines and related components that can be used by each driver during the season is heavily restricted. Originally, the limit this year was going to be a crippling 4 units of each type for the whole season although it now looks like that will be increased back up to 5 after the struggles of many of the manufacturers in Australia. There was a thread to keep track of how many components each driver had used last year, and I'll try to keep this thread updated for this season as well.

The various components that come under the restrictions are:

ICE: Internal Combustion Engine (the V6 engine itself).
TC: The Turbo Charger
MGU-K: Motor Generator Unit Kinetic - energy recovery from the engine under braking (i.e. KERS).
MGU-H: Motor Generator Unit Heat - energy recovery from the turbo.
ES: Energy Store - the batteries.
CE: Control electronics.

The FIA provide technical documents with a list of the number of components used by each driver at the start of each race weekend. Here's the status going in to Malaysian grand prix:

f1componentusage.PNG


As is well documented elsewhere, Renault had a difficult start and Ricciardo's already had to use a second unit of everything except the batteries and control electronics. If the optimists at Renault were thinking "well at least the batteries and control electronics are ok", then they're out of luck because Verstappen had to replace those which makes a clean sweep of 2nd units used for the Renault powered cars.

I mentioned this under the Hamilton thread yesterday but it slipped under the radar during the weekend in Australia that Lewis had to replace the control electronics on his car. Not the ideal start to the season but it shouldn't be a major issue as many of the Mercedes powered teams got to Abu Dhabi last year having only used 4 sets of control electronics.

Ferrari come out as looking super reliable in the percentages thanks to Manor not leaving the garage and not putting miles on any of their components in Melbourne.

EDIT: Oh yeah there's Honda too... well they went on a nice Sunday drive putting as little stress on the components as possible. It looks like Magnussen's failure on the way to the grid has not required McLaren to change the engine, though.
 
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Update for the state of play as it was after the Chinese grand prix, and things start to look pretty gloomy for McLarens and the Renault teams. I should point out that at the moment all the percentages in the tables are based on the teams having 5 units of each type for the season but the current rule is 4. It sounded like the rule was going to change but news on that front has gone quiet again so if there's no new news by Spain I'll change the percentages to reflect that.

f1componentusage.PNG
 
Amazing, the same number of bits have been replaced on Alonso's car as all 8 Mercedes cars combined.

That new car can't come soon enough for Manor.
 
Seems likely that Ricciardo will have to use his 4th engine in Spain already after his explosive end to the race today.
 
The old Colin Chapman saying "an F1 car should last long enough to cross the finishing line, anything beyond that isn't important"
 
What happened to the rule that stated if an engine blew up during the race and the car didn't finish then that was considered penalty enough and you could get a free power unit?
 
Can I have a clarification? If their is say a 2 in the ICE column does that mean a driver has used two and is on his third or does it mean he has used one and on his second?

Also it is my understanding that the Honda engine that let go in Australia on the way to the grid was in fact reusable...
 
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It's the number of units that have been put in the car at any point. So 2 in the "Prior to Bahrain" table means the driver used 2 units of that type across Australia, Malaysia and China. They can go back and use old units if they still function and later in the season I think this becomes increasingly the case on Fridays before they swap a new/newer unit in for qualifying/race.

The engine reliability rules were completely overhauled in 2014. They can change units as often as they like now as long as they don't use more than the total allocated number (4 as it stands but maybe increased to 5). Penalties are only given once they use a new unit outside the allocation.
 
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I wonder if the upgrades Ferrari have planned from Canada onwards will be as "successful" as Renault's have been from over the winter.
 
So much for Renault's "focus on reliability"!

They are looking even more hapless than Honda, especially when you consider how much more recent experience they have than the latter.
 
Apparently the proposal to increase the engine allocation to 5 is going to be rejected next week.

"Formula 1's Strategy Group will next week reject a proposal to increase the engine allocation for this season to five, AUTOSPORT has learned."
"AUTOSPORT understands Mercedes and Red Bull are in favour, but on cost grounds Williams, Force India, McLaren and Ferrari will vote against."
 
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