"Expect engine changes to take twice as long now"
Red Bull Content Pool
General
- GPblog.com
Racing Point made the necessary test kilometres on Wednesday at the Silverstone circuit. In the run-up to the Austrian Grand Prix, the British team has also been able to practice there with the new corona regulations that will apply in Formula 1 in the coming period. It has been discovered that next season will be more important than ever not to crash.
"It (the regulations) ultimately changes the time it takes to do certain jobs on the car," says Andrew Green in conversation with Motorsport.com and others. Normally dozens of people work on a car, but this number has now been significantly reduced by the FIA.
Racing Point can start planning again
"Certain jobs now take a lot longer, and we have to manage that. We only have a certain amount of time trackside to work on the car when we're in a race environment, and we have curfews in place. So we have to now look at how long it takes to change and modify parts on the car that we would normally do, reschedule them so we make sure that we are doing what we're doing what we need to do during a race weekend, and not contravening the curfew regulations", said the top man of Racing Point.
It will therefore be important that the mechanics are put to work in the pitbox as little as possible. A big hit can have far-reaching consequences for the rest of the Grand Prix weekend. "We hope we don't have to do one in a hurry, that's for sure! I suspect changing an engine now will take twice as long as it used to", Green means replacing a full engine. "It really does limit the speed at which you can do a power unit change. Depending when a power unit is required, it's going to be very challenging."
Consequences for Stroll and Perez
The technical director also has a message for drivers Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez. "If they do go off during a practice session and do a lot of damage it potentially could take a lot longer to repair," the Brit concludes his story.