A new directive from the FIA is aimed at ensuring customer teams have engine performance parity with works teams.

As witnessed last year, come Q3 and the works Mercedes clearly had a mode that was not available to its customer teams, leaving the likes of Force India as frustrated at the German outfit's superiority as the Ferrari and Renault powered teams.

However, it was widely suspected that the other manufacturers were also holding back in terms of the engines they supplied to their customers.

In a bid to end the disparity a new directive, sent to the teams last month, will ensure that all the engines supplied by a manufacturer will be identical, in both the way they look and how they operate.

"Whilst the dossiers for each team may be identical it would appear that some are being operated in a different way to others being supplied by the same manufacturer," it read. "It is therefore our view that all power units supplied by one manufacturer should be identical, not only in terms of the dossier for each team being the same, but we also feel they should be operated in an identical way.

"With this in mind, we will expect all power units supplied by the same manufacturer to be:

"i) Identical according to the dossier for each team.

"and, unless a team informs us that they have declined any of the following, they should be:

"ii) Run with identical software and must be capable of being operated in precisely the same way.

"iii) Run with identical specifications of oil and fuel."

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by nonickname, 26/02/2018 6:45

"Any comments I make on this will certainly be removed."

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2. Posted by Uffen, 25/02/2018 17:27

"So, any non-Petronas team (in this example) using the Merc engine will certainly have to "decline" iii and, the way I read it, will almost certainly have to decline ii as well. After all "precisely the same way" is strong and explicit language. So, if Lewis can call up 1,000 H.P. and Sergio can only make 998 the FIA must step in.
Or, if they refuse to decline does that mean they automatically get the Petronas fuel and the software and software use secrets of Mercedes?"

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3. Posted by Stitch431, 25/02/2018 17:22

"Like with all regulations of the FIA, the most important issue is not declared: WHAT IS THE CONSEQUENCE FOR A MANUFACTURER IF THEY BREAK THIS RULE?"

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4. Posted by Young Slinger, 25/02/2018 15:37

"@Canuk

"and, unless a team informs us that they have declined any of the following, they should be:

"ii) Run with identical software and must be capable of being operated in precisely the same way.

"iii) Run with identical specifications of oil and fuel.""

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5. Posted by Canuck, 25/02/2018 14:43

"There seems to be some strange wording in this regulation. For item ii) does this also mean that the engine supplier will also supply the code for the computer controlling the PU? and how do you differentiate the electrical components from the actual ICE in the level of performance that the PU is able to put out?
Item iii) will this limit the number of fuel companies that can sponsor in F1. Will all teams using Merc ICE be forced to use Petronas products or will Petronas be forced to give their secret formulae to oils and fuels to other fuel and oil suppliers of the competition teams using Merc ICE?
And will this also apply to Red Bull since although they are supplied by Renault they are powers by a different brand on the engine. "

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FIA moves to ensure customer engine parity

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