Purnell: Engine freeze good for F1

[ShiftingGears]

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/64117




Who, in this forum, thinks that an engine freeze will help the sport in any way whatsoever? As Ross Brawn said - it's a competitive business, and teams will spend all the money they have to get even the slightest advantage. I find this kind of needless restriction in the name of cost cutting just infuriating.

[Hawkmoon]

Purnell obviously hasn't been paying any attention to what the fans want. Not surprising really. Nobody in any position of authority in the F1 community listens to the fans. Why should Purnell be any different?

Too bad if your engine sucks at the beginning of the freeze. You can look forward to a decade of mediocrity. You might as well quit because I doubt a wonderfull little tree-hugging-hippy KERS device is going to turn your engine into a winner.

[Roamy]

well if they listened to the fans we would have v-10's and slicks.
Freeze that and we are good to go

[gloomyDAY]

I don't understand how restricting F1 somehow makes it better. Engineers/designers should have the ability to assess which engine is essential. V8? Sure. V10? Great! V6 turbo? Even better.

There are going to be a few teams in 2008 who have trouble with their engines and can do NOTHING about the problem. Doesn't that seem unreasonable? If you don't get it right the first time, you're going to have to wait an entire decade.

Ridiculous!

[aryan]

well if they listened to the fans we would have v-10's and slicks.
Freeze that and we are good to go

Give us a 5 litre V12 with 1,000 bhp and I'll agree to the freeze!

[SGWilko]

There are going to be a few teams in 2008 who have trouble with their engines and can do NOTHING about the problem. Doesn't that seem unreasonable? If you don't get it right the first time, you're going to have to wait an entire decade.

Ridiculous!

I disagree with the 10 year freeze wholeheartedly, but I am not sure what you say here is true. Are the engines in '08 going to be radically different from the ultra reliable iterations that were running in '07? Especially as development is currently restricted as it is.

So I cannot really forsee any big issue with motors next season.

But, yes, if you do cock it up at the start of the freeze, then you will have to live it, or will reliability development be permitted???

[passmeatissue]

There is a conspiracy theory , saying there is something else that Max wants...

then the teams can have their engines back.

[ioan]

They are trying to level the field on the engine side, believing that this will help competition.
The 19000 rpm limitation did already show a positive effect by getting the Mc... to fight with Ferrari this season.
Otherwise it would have been a boring season won by Ferrari while FA and LH would have taken the 10 spot grid penalty in turns.
This also saved a lot of money for Mercedes! :

They do care less about the sporting side of it, what's important is the show and leveling the field as much as possible is improving the show. That's all.

[Malbec]

They are trying to level the field on the engine side, believing that this will help competition.
The 19000 rpm limitation did already show a positive effect by getting the Mc... to fight with Ferrari this season.
Otherwise it would have been a boring season won by Ferrari while FA and LH would have taken the 10 spot grid penalty in turns.
This also saved a lot of money for Mercedes! :

They do care less about the sporting side of it, what's important is the show and leveling the field as much as possible is improving the show. That's all.

Its not about the sporting side at all, its about controlling the power of the manufacturers within the sport by theoretically making it cheaper for independent engine makers to enter the sport by making the regs more stable and development less costly. The only problem is that it isn't working.

I'm also sure that Purnell's opinions are not influenced in any way whatsoever by the fact that he is now employed by the FIA......

[Sleeper]

Purnell has never realised that we like to see the veriety in the cars and engines as well in the driver talent. Apparently, earlier in the year he was talking to some of the journolists from autosport and was shocked to find that they were very much against the idea of all the teams running standard chassis. Says a lot about him I think.