FLOYD ON F1: Power(unit) struggle leaves a lot of questions

The concept of Formula One budget caps has its merits, but I can’t understand the limitation on the number of powerunits each team can use within the season. Three is a nice round number, I suppose.

Anything beyond that becomes subject to grid penalties and surely places strain on the limited financial situation, but without power units the cars go nowhere. Most teams have already used four units and incurred the penalty, yet we still have six races to go to complete the season.

If we take an average of 30 6km per race, with 11 races from the start of the season to the summer break, this means a total to this point of 3 366 km at race speeds. In a 22-race season, each of the allowed three power units will record about 2 244 km.

This season most teams had used all three units by the summer recess. These approximations of mileage do not include practice sessions, qualifying or sprints, which all add mileage and varying dynamics on power unit components.

In the last few races we have seen most teams move to a fourth unit and some already on number five. How will this situation affect the balance of the season? There are sure to be more failures of components, despite the best efforts of designers and engineers.

Race engines spend most of their life under stress. One must hope the excitement of the 2021 championship battle will be wheel to wheel on track and not decided by grid penalties due to power unit failures. The aim for 2022 is for 23 races with at least one third of those incorporating the “exciting” sprint format.

This will mean on seven occasions there will only be one Friday and one Saturday practice session, limiting the opportunities to improve car setup, particularly on bad-weather weekends.

It appears this could be further restricted if a new regulation making it mandatory to give track time to young drivers during the Friday practice session is adopted.

With a whole new car appearing next year, I would have thought regular drivers would require all the time available to come to grips with the characteristics of the chassis and aerodynamics, in fact the car as a whole.

Simulator time is good but there are many aspects that are unknown and will be present on track rather than the factory. We used to refer to such issues as “gremlins” creeping in.

With new cars, aspirant drivers and sprint races, time for testing is becoming more limited. And with new circuits, running time becomes essential. I have to bow to the simulator’s power, but a wet cold day in a cockpit is a hard one to replicate.