© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says engine swap grid penalties that are reduced for repeated offences, have been introduced because of Honda’s past problems.
The current regulations dictate that each driver has a limited amount of power unit components that can be swapped in a single season.
Once certain components are swapped more than the allowed allocation, grid penalties are issued. However, the first offence carries with it a heftier penalty, but for repeated offences the penalty is reduced.
For example, when Lewis Hamilton got his fourth Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) he was handed a ten-place grid penalty. However, when Valtteri Bottas received his sixth ICE, he only received a five-place grid penalty, as it was his third offence.
Toto Wolff explains that this type of punishment was introduced after McLaren Honda had repeated engine issues throughout the 2015 Formula 1 season, and amassed a large number of penalties, often starting at the back of the grid. The Austrian says this led to the current “anti-embarrassment regulation”.
“I think that’s probably like old Honda, where you are in a situation and it’s going terribly wrong and you need to change engine parts or complete power units,” Wolff explained.
“Then you shouldn’t be penalised every single race to go to the back of the grid or lose 10 places. So it’s almost an anti-embarrassment regulation and I think that’s okay.
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“Obviously we need to look at that, how we do it in the future, but it’s biting us hard this year.”
There have been talks about limiting punishment to the constructors’ side, for example the reduction of points in the Constructors’ Championship, as opposed to the current situation where drivers are punished too. Wolff, however, thinks the current system is adequate.
“I think the penalty system on power units is pretty robust. What we need to avoid is we are building power units that, in a way, they perform for only a few races.
“If you changed the regulations in a way and said there was no grid penalty for the drivers, but only [the loss of] constructors’ points, it would still mean that if you are in a fight for the drivers’ championship you would just throw engines at that car.
“If we come up with good solutions then it’s definitely worth looking at it because, I agree, it is confusing for the new fans because, beyond a driver’s responsibility, [it] puts him at the back of the grid or five places away, and that’s clearly not great.
“But I haven’t got the solutions,” Mercedes’ team boss concluded.
