F1: Teams' 2015 engine tokens revealed

[Ben Stevens]

While Mercedes still lead the engine arms race, it has been revealed the manufacturer used more of its engine development tokens to do so.

A FIA press release today revealed where all four manufacturers stand in regards to token usage for their engines in 2015.

Introduced with F1's new engine regulations for the 2014 season, manufacturers have 66 'tokens' they can use to develop their power unit within the FIA's designated timeline. According to that timeline, manufacturers were designated a maximum 32 tokens for 2015.

Of the three manufacturers who participated in 2014, world champions Mercedes have used the most, spending 25 of their 32 tokens already.

In comparison, Ferrari and Renault have used 22 and 20 tokens respectively.

Honda, being a year late into the sport, does not have the same 32 token limit, and while originally this meant they had to cease 2015 development by the end of February, the Japanese company has successfully negotiated with the FIA to be given 9 tokens for 2015, based on the average of those available to the other manufacturers.

Each component of the engine costs a certain number of tokens (maximum of three) with a designated developmental freeze date. Therefore, there is no guarantee Mercedes’ rivals can catch up, as they may be deficient in too many areas, or unable to improve a desired component any longer. However, it certainly provides an opportunity.

2015 Engine Tokens Remaining By Manufacturer
Ferrari 10 tokens
Honda 9 tokens
Mercedes 7 tokens
Renault 12 tokens

Does their token advantage give Mercedes' rivals a chance to catch up? Sound off in the comments below.

 

[Youssef Karam]

I'm pretty confident that Mercedes used their tokens wisely and efficiently and that they will be leading this season too.

 

[vee10]

I was surprised to learn Mercedes had used that many tokens they are obviously not resting on their laurels as can be seen from qualifying today.

Ferrari seemed to have used theirs wisely and hopefully have a few more updates to come.

Renaults setup is being assessed by Mario Illien I presume they are holding off until that is done before they use any more tokens as with his input they mainly finally head in the right direction.

I think a little unfairly Honda are screwed they will never make enough gains this season.

 

[Tobias Liesaus]

sorry guys. what is meant by "token" ???

 

[Omer Said]

We can't be sure unless we know how much a single token effects?

 

[Pi_2R_0]

sorry guys. what is meant by "token" ???

The answer is from the FIA official website and thanks to this document about the Power Unit Regulations in 2014: http://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/publication/file/FIA F1 Power Unit leaflet.pdf

Quote from chapter 6 Cost Concerns:

The Power Unit is divided into families of functions, with each family being given a certain importance, labelled as category 1, 2 or 3 components. For example, the pistons are ranked 2, while the ignition system is ranked 1. The complete Power Unit is made up of the sum of these ranked items, with the complete Power Unit being represented by the total number, 66. Each year, each Power Unit manufacturer will be allowed to choose what parts of the engine they wish to develop and will spend a set ‘budget’ of ‘tokens’.
This development budget decreases each year across the seven-year schedule. For 2015 the budget available to teams is 32 tokens (close to 50% of possible development) but for 2018 the budget drops to 15 tokens (less than 25% of possible development).

 

[Blkout]

Such a retarded rule honestly. Tokens exist to complicate F1 even further.

 

[Matt]

The sooner an open wheel prototype class comes along to rival F1 the better. Almost every other class in the world is with equal cars so the drivers stand out. F1 should not be like this.

 

[Rob]

The sooner an open wheel prototype class comes along to rival F1 the better. Almost every other class in the world is with equal cars so the drivers stand out. F1 should not be like this.

You can do both and keep costs down. Once people start watching an IndyCar race or two, more will figure this out.

 

[Blkout]

I mean honestly why does the rule exist? Is it to limit the amount of improvements that can be made during a season? If so, why? Who cares if a team needs to make improvements through the season to stay competitive. As long as the car is within the rules of what's legal, who cares how they get there or how many times the car has to be revised to stay competitive. Seems like an idea that was thought up by a committee that sounded good in theory by some warped logic but makes very little sense in the real world.

 

[Blkout]

The sooner an open wheel prototype class comes along to rival F1 the better. Almost every other class in the world is with equal cars so the drivers stand out. F1 should not be like this.

The thing is I'm opposed to every class of racing that limits the cars to make them all equal. Where's the fun in that? There's little engineering involved other than making the car reliable. I understand that it sort of levels the playing field from a money standpoint where teams with more money can afford to spend more on R&D but ultimately, I don't want to just see which driver is best, I want to see which team is best and that includes the engineers that get to develop the cars as well as the driver. I'm not saying throw out all rules but certainly there should be room within the rules to allow some engineering of the car to be less restrictive. NASCAR is huge in the US and I hate it simply because I don't give a damn that all the cars are equal in every way except the driver.

 

[Darth]

The tokens are actually helping the other teams catch up, even if it
doesn't look that way.In fact Ferrari are planning to bring two major engine
upgrades, one in Spain (Evo1) and one after the summer (Evo2). These tokens
give the teams a chance and time to adopt Mercedes's engine layout, so it's good.
Of course this might cost for next year when they'll have less tokens.
I agree that there shouldn't be so many restrictions on the cars but there has to
be a restriction on the amount of testing each team can make. Otherwise the rich
teams will be like Ferrari at the early 00s.

 

[Matt]

Considering the teams have an average of 12 tokens left for the year and Merc dominated by so much, they have no chance of catching them.

 

[Darth]

Considering the teams have an average of 12 tokens left for the year and Merc dominated by so much, they have no chance of catching them.

We'll see, I really want to find out what the Honda engine can do.

 

[Blkout]

The tokens are actually helping the other teams catch up, even if it
doesn't look that way.In fact Ferrari are planning to bring two major engine
upgrades, one in Spain (Evo1) and one after the summer (Evo2). These tokens
give the teams a chance and time to adopt Mercedes's engine layout, so it's good.
Of course this might cost for next year when they'll have less tokens.
I agree that there shouldn't be so many restrictions on the cars but there has to
be a restriction on the amount of testing each team can make. Otherwise the rich
teams will be like Ferrari at the early 00s.

Well then, why couldn't they set a monetary budget restriction rather than a token restriction?

 

[Darth]

Well then, why couldn't they set a monetary budget restriction rather than a token restriction?

Those tokens ( and correct me if I'm wrong ) are for the engine manufacturers to
use. Besides, the more tokens a team waste's this year the less they will have
for the next year. So a budget restriction on the engines wouldn't help.
What they should restrict is testing money during the season.

 

[Blkout]

Those tokens ( and correct me if I'm wrong ) are for the engine manufacturers to
use. Besides, the more tokens a team waste's this year the less they will have
for the next year. So a budget restriction on the engines wouldn't help.
What they should restrict is testing money during the season.

Well that's essentially what I was implying. Limit the amount of money to be used for testing and upgrades to level the playing field. However using an arbitrary number of tokens just doesn't seem to be the right way to go about it. Honda is in a weird predicament because of these tokens. I'm no F1 expert, but I still think there's many better ways than using tokens.

 

[Nelson Ullinskey]

Here's a crazy idea: When there is a dominant engine, mandate a freeze in engine development until the competitors catch up. Then when they do, open up the development again until one one gains an advantage, freeze them, and so on and so on.

One flaw I that I just thought of is if there is one engine that no matter what they do, they can't catch the others despite the freeze thus allowing for a scenario where the freeze is indefinite. In the interest of this not happening, the freeze should remain in effect until 2 or 3 engines are at the same speed then open the development again.

So in the 2015 season, let's say the the freeze can only be uncapped when 3 manufacturers are at the same speed. So Mercedes is frozen so it can't develop. Then Ferrari, Renault and Honda are free to do whatever they wish. Let's say Renault reaches Mercedes pace before either Honda or Ferrari, so now Renault is frozen along with Mercedes until one of the others catches up.

In this scenario, let's say Ferrari finally is at the same pace as Renault and Mercedes. Development is thawed so everyone can develop their engines again. Then let's say it becomes evident 4 races after the unfreeze that Ferrari has the dominant pace. They are frozen, until two others catch up. Honda somehow miraculously catches Ferrari, they are frozen. Mercedes develops their's and catches Honda and Ferrari, then the freeze is lifted. Then the glorious cycle of life continues

 

[Blkout]

Not a terrible idea, or they could do something similar to the NFL draft, the team that ranks worst at the end of a season gets first round draft pick before the next season and the team that places at the top gets the last pick, so basically for F1, the team that is winning most gets a lower budget for R&D or less tokens in this case the following year, and the team that loses the most gets a higher budget or tokens for R&D, this should help keep the playing field closer, and just like the NFL, if a team still can't overcome their losing ways the following season, then its not because they were at a disadvantage from a budget or token standpoint, its just because the team sucks.

 

[Mark Aalberts]

Ridiculous rules, they should just keep it open. Its about cost saving but if you going to calculate what these engines have cost so far it will probably exceed the number used for the engines use between 2010 and 2013 lol. The current engines cost almost 3 times as much as the engines been used in 2013.

Anyway another question, apparently each year a number of tokens is addressed tot he teams.

2015 32 tokens
2016 26 tokens
2017 20 tokens
2018 15 tokens

Each year more parts of the engine will be frozen and cant be updated anymore, this will go on untill the complete engine is freezed by 2020 2021 or whatever.

My question now is, mainly about the tokens. Can a team save their tokens and take them to the next year. Lets say Renault saves their 12 tokens this year so will they have then 38 tokens to use for next year or will it still be 26 tokens >??