As the 2016 Formula One season begun it was revealed that Ferrari had been the team to spend most of their engine tokens during the winter break to develop their package.
Each of the manufacturers has been given 32 power unit development tokens to use over winter break and through the season to improve their race packages. Different to last year, the tokens can now be spent on any area of the engine and power unit.
The 2015 regulations that stated some areas could not be worked on through the season, for example, certain areas of the engine, have now been lifted and full development is allowed. However, the token system has still remained in place and even though there is no restriction on what may be developed there is a restriction on how much development can take place.
Ferrari has used the most over the winter break with the FIA confirmed they have spent 23 of their 32 tokens, leaving them with only nine to be used to develop through the season. Mercedes follow having used 19, whilst Honda has used 18.
The manufacturer having used the least tokens over winter is Renault, who have only spent seven tokens so far. This leaves them with 25 to use through the season but the low number has concerned some that they have not put in place enough of a step over the winter to keep up with the other manufacturers.
Renault are not worried about the situation, believing that there is no correlation between power unit tokens spent and car performance. The French manufacturer believes they have already found 0.5s of performance with the developments they have made so far over the season.
Like last year it appears that Renault is not focused on spending all of their tokens and may be searching for performance gains in other areas of the car.
