Comments on: Beaux Barfield’s Busy Week

By: Steve K

Steve K — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 23:16:04 +0000

Sounds like teams need to create a phony entry and only test that car. Just claim they will run Fontana and whatever road course is last. Test that car everywhere and rotate drivers. Then simply withdraw the enty before those last two races.

By: james t suel

james t suel — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:31:04 +0000

I think leaving the pits open during yellow right. They need to do that on ovals also! Now if we could get rid of speed limits on pit road, we would closer to a pure race ,like Indy was back in the day.Racing is not a childs game like all the other sports,we done a thick rule book.
Give these cars some real horsepower on the ovals and we will have something.

By: billytheskink

billytheskink — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 22:27:39 +0000

Wouldn’t using an engine just for testing be considered an engine change, at least under these rules?

By: Deke

Deke — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 18:07:31 +0000

I understand the engine shortage issue.
If they are so concerned about blowing the things then they shouldn’t even test, ala Lotus.

I still think that if any car is out for a “test”, it should be exempt from the raceday penalties. Race weekends should not be linked to any testing in such a manner. Period.

If they are going to insist on mandating testing-based penalties to curb costs, then I’d agree with NaBUru38 that they should be levied in some manner to not impact individual races. Again, keep testing and race weekends separated.

By: Simona Fan

Simona Fan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:19:07 +0000

Looks like Beau is looking at ways to modify this rule as he alluded to on Twitter.

http://pressdog.typepad.com/dogblog/2012/04/barfield-says-rule-penalizing-engines-blown-during-test-will-be-reviewed.html#more

By: Simona Fan

Simona Fan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 17:18:13 +0000

If they had a test engine available I’m sure they would have used it. This is an engine shortage issue, not a long term racing rule.

Hinch isn’t being penalized on points. He’s getting a grid penalty. And you can’t separate a driver from his car. If his car fails tech inspection, or gains an unfair advantage in anyway, it has an impact on the driver (i.e. entrant) and his chances of winning. Racing has always been like that.

By: Deke

Deke — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:38:59 +0000

“Furthermore, Hinch will now have a fresh engine to start the race. Why should he get an advantage for blowing his race engine in a test?”
He shouldn’t be using his “Race Engine” during testing, eliminating the concern of a “fresh engine”.

“There are driver points and there are engine manufacturer points. There are no team points.”
So why should Hinch be penalized on his driver points then? It should be a engine manufacturer point penalty.

By: delta3

delta3 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:32:34 +0000

I read somewhere recently that in F1 the penalty for an engine change is FIVE positions …and I believe that this was referring to practice and qualifying, not testing (correct me if I’m misinformed). In any event, I believe that penalizing positions for an engine change during TESTING is an ill-advised rule that should be changed; and I’m willing to bet that by next year …when the shortage-of-engines problem will have been solved …this rule WILL be changed. But even for practice and qualifying, ten positions is too harsh a penalty –I think five is more reasonable.

By: Simona Fan

Simona Fan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 16:31:36 +0000

I have no problem with the rule since it was obviously created as a result of the engine shortage. Do you think Honda would have provided an engine for Sarah Fisher if they also had to build special test engines for each of their teams? The rule was no doubt put in place to allow the engine manufactures to support more teams.

Furthermore, Hinch will now have a fresh engine to start the race. Why should he get an advantage for blowing his race engine in a test? Hinch is part of Andretti Autosport which is part of the Chevy Engine team. Chevy hand picked their teams. They are not simply suppliers. Penalizing entrants (Hinch in this case) is the only way to have equity when it comes to controlling costs between engine manufacturers. There are driver points and there are engine manufacturer points. There are no team points.

By: NaBUru38

NaBUru38 — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:40:55 +0000

I’m fine with teams getting penalized for changing engines. Perhaps the penalties should come at the end of the year after teams spent all their available engines, like in F1 and MotoGP. The current rules do penalize engine manufacturers: if a team gets too many engines blown, they will complain with the manufacturer for the penalties. It puts pressure on them, be sure of that.

There’s another plus to the pitlane speed limit: it penalizes pitstops. If speeds were higher, teams would be encouraged to pit more times. But as it is, teams must save fuel and tires. Motorsport should be about using the available resources at best, not consuming them unlimitedly.