Engine woes to limit Vettel practice laps

[John S]

Has no one told Red Bull that already used engines can be put in for Friday practice. Ah but it's probably the installation itself or attached components that has been causing the blow ups, so it sounds like the team can't trust a power transplant between Friday and Quali.

Sounds like they are also adopting the old Colin Chapman methods, to push the boundaries at RBR, make the car last just long enough to cross the finish line.

Sebastian Vettel's two Renault engine failures at Valencia last weekend means he will have to ease back on practice mileage for the rest of his 2009 championship challenge.

"The last thing I want is a penalty," the Red Bull driver is quoted as saying on Thursday from Spa-Francorchamps.

"That means I will drive less on Friday in practice," said Vettel according to the German news agency SID.

It is believed that, in addition to the fresh V8 unit that will be in his car for Saturday's qualifying and Sunday's Belgian Grand Prix, the German has just one more fresh Renault engine in the bag for the remainder of the season - meaning each must last an average of three races. 
 
"Naturally that's not an advantage, but it's better to sit and drink some coffee (by not running much in practice) than have to start ten places behind," he explained.


© CAPSIS International

[Scott]

But how many total does he have left?  I read on another forum that he has only these two plus one used.  I don't recall three other blow-ups, but if for some reason there are really only two new and one used left, then he might just have to limit his practice time.  Anyone know for sure?  Ali? 

It could be that three of them are unusable after something was found on x-Ray. 

[Alianora La Canta]

Vettel has got:

Definitely usable
1 completely fresh engine
1 engine that's done Belgium (one race of mileage)
1 engine that's done Malaysia and China (one-and-a-bit races of mileage due to Malaysia being shortened)

Maybe usable
1 engine that's only done the Australian Grand Prix (I'm not 100% sure if it is still functional, but not even a whole weekend of mileage if so)

Useless
1 engine that's done Monaco and Turkey (two races of mileage, which with Friday uses added means it's probably out of mileage)
3 definitely blown engines

An engine is supposed to be capable of two-and-a-bit race weekends in order to meet the eight-engines-in-seventeen-races regulation. If only the definitely usable engines remain and they all meet the bare minimum requirement in terms of endurance, there's four-and-two-bits of race weekend left in Vettel's engine supply - which is a problem seeing as there are five complete races expected. Unless Abu Dhabi's sunset race has technical problems, I'd expect an engine failure in the last round, though probably in the race rather than in qualifying (and thus not attracting a penalty because the slate is cleaned for 2010).

If the Australia engine is fine, then Vettel will probably also be fine. He just can't afford to lose any more engines in that scenario.