Facebook
Twitter
LinkedInFerrari believes no tokens means more flexibility
Luigi Fraboni, Ferrari’s head of power unit operations, has claimed the removal of 2017 engine development tokens will allow for more planning flexibility.
“As Ferrari, we are in favour of not having the tokens,” said Fraboni, “this, for us, is a good thing. Of course next year you will have still the four power units so we need to follow the rule, but not have the tokens will give you more flexibility on making you plan and also on changes during the season.”
Since the introduction of V6 hybrid power units to Formula 1, engine development tokens have been allocated each season in order for power unit manufacturers to develop its power units each year.
The tokens were initially intended to be spent over the winter with power units to be homologated at the start of each season to prevent in-season development of power units.
A loophole in the 2015 technical regulations allowed for power unit manufacturers to spread its development token spending throughout the season and legally permit in-season power unit development.
2016 will be the last year of engine development tokens as the rules for 2017 lift restrictions on engine development with teams restricted to just four power units per car, per season.
“On our side we already used [up] the tokens this year,” added Fraboni, “so this means that we had quite a strong evolution during the season and so not having this this limit for next season is good and at the moment the development of the power unit for 2017 is proceeding quite well.”
