Only McLaren used Melbourne engines at Sepang

[John S]

I wonder if some of the teams are using up the engines hoping to be higher in the points table so it wont matter later on if they are a bit down on power or suffer breakdowns?

All but two of the 20 cars on the Malaysian Grand Prix had fresh engines installed prior to Saturday's official action.

Before 2009, changing an engine after just one race would have attracted a ten-position grid penalty.

But this year, the rules have been changed, allowing the teams the freedom to decide how to use a maximum of eight engines for the entire season.

Only when a ninth engine is fitted to a car this year, will the driver be penalised.

Initially, it was reported that all cars except Toro Rosso and McLaren changed their engines at Sepang, but it subsequently emerged that Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais and Sebastien Buemi also did not race their Melbourne-specification Ferraris.   
 
It is believed the widespread decision was based on the fact that Sepang's high temperatures and long straights made it wiser to use a fresh engine.

According to the 2009 rules, the Melbourne engines can now be reprised elsewhere on the calendar, while the Malaysia power plants are likely to be used at one of the less arduous tracks.

Source: GMM
© CAPSIS International

[Jericoke]

How are the engines monitored and regulated?  It sounds like a logistical nightmare for the FIA to keep track of 160+ engines! 

My guess is that they'll find that McLaren has broken the rules.  The question is whether they'll bother to wait for the ninth race to drag them to the WMSC, or just toss the book at them now.

[cosworth151]

Every engine has a unique I.D. number cast into the block. I'm sure they have a method of making sure that the engines remained sealed. This has been standard practice for customer engines for some time. I remember seeing a film made several years ago where Jordon mechanics were talking about the sealed engines they got from Honda. They would return to Honda after a race week-end.

[Jericoke]

Every engine has a unique I.D. number cast into the block. I'm sure they have a method of making sure that the engines remained sealed. This has been standard practice for customer engines for some time. I remember seeing a film made several years ago where Jordon mechanics were talking about the sealed engines they got from Honda. They would return to Honda after a race week-end.

But it's different now.  Before the FIA only had to account for approx 24 engines at a time during the 'two weekend' rule.  The teams would throw away the old engines voluntarily.  Now the teams are keeping the engines.  Or someone is.  That's 160 engines that need to be sealed, inspected, stored and transported. 

They can't tell if a diffuser is legal or not, they can't tell if you can pass someone who goes of track during a safety car or not, but this is somehow easy? 

There's so much room to game the system.  I know there are rules about what can and can't be done, but someone is going to find a fuzzy rule and exploit it.

[Scott]

I wondered the same.  Surely a team with a $300m budget can figure out how to effectively forge an FIA engine seal, and since they build their own, who's to say they can't cast a few blocks with identical serial numbers?

Your points about how they can't tell if a pass has been made or a diffuser is legal or not is hilarious!