FIA accepts engine loophole

The FIA has accepted that there is a loophole in the 2015 sporting regulations that will allow for engine manufacturers to carry out in season development of the 2015 power units.

Ferrari and Renault had been pushing for extra time to develop the 2015 engines in order to help them close the gap to Mercedes following their domination of last season, but the champions were not willing to give much leeway in negotiations. The rules state that engine manufacturers are only allowed to submit one homologated engine for the entire season, but the loophole discovered at the end of last season is that there is no date set for when the engine has to be homologated by.

The FIA had hoped that a general consensus would see the engines submitted at the first race, although the regulations do not state this.

A spokesmen from the governing body told Autosport “It was always envisaged, although not explicitly stated in the rules, that manufacturers would have to deal with modifications on the engine within the constraints of the rules, and then submit their engines [at the first race].”

“It is simple, but when you read it [the rule book], it doesn’t say that unfortunately.”

The loophole, discovered by Ferrari Technical Director James Allison, was discussed at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix and at the final Strategy Group meeting of 2014. The FIA has now admitted to the wording of the regulations being “open to interpretation” and Charlie Whiting has sent a letter to all the teams saying new parts may be added at any time, so long as they stick to the engine freeze rules.

This only applies to the 2014 engine manufactures though, with Honda – McLaren’s new engine supplier – having to submit their engine by the 28th February. This is the same date as the FIA set to Mercedes, Ferrari and Renault in 2014.

How the engine freeze works

In order to save costs by preventing a development war, manufacturers are only allowed to change a certain amount of the engine each season, with the amount changeable being reduced every year. The only exception to this is for parts that will improve reliability, safety or save costs – these can be changed at will.

The engine is divided into 66 “tokens” by the FIA. Different parts are worth different amounts of tokens, on a scale of 1 to 3 depending on importance. For 2015, five of these tokens are completely frozen. Out of the remaining 61, manufacturers are allowed to change any 32 that they choose.

This means that for 2015, approximately 48% of the engine can be changed from the 2014 spec model. This decreases to 38% in 2016, 30% in 2017, 23% in 2018 before two final years of 5%. After this period, engines are frozen completely.

Teams can still run an older spec engine if they choose, but in the early years of an engine freeze this is likely to leave them seriously off the pace.