The big freeze

[mstillhere]

I was reading the official F1 web site, and I noticed this article: The big freeze ( http://www.formula1.com/news/5450.html).
At the very beginning it says:"Renault, Ferrari and Mercedes were reportedly among the freeze’s strongest supporters".
My question is: while it's understandable why Renault and Ferrari were in favor of this rule, in light of years of poor engine performance, why in the world McLaren was in favor of the engine freeze?
Your thoughts?

[Knock-on]

Because they had a powerful engine which only lacked reliability.

They are allowed to alter engines to improve reliability but not to improve performance.

What worries me is the teams without a lot of experience and possibly a good engine that they cannot improve on.

Crap rule IMHO.

[philipbain]

I'm actually inclined to agree that the engine freeze is a very good rule as the timing was right, had it been more than a single season into the new 2.4 litre V8 regulations you might have had a few engines that were more equal than others but as it is the engines are on approximately equal in terms of power and with the 19,000 rpm limit coming into force this will be even more apparent. The cost savings are undeniable, at least in the short term so in terms of costs and equity its a big thumbs up.

The only issue I have with this rule is that it may have an effect on the quality of the racing as many teams used power boost functions on the engines which would give extras revs and richen the mixture to give a burst of power for overtaking purposes and the enforcment of a 19,000 rpm limit will limit the effectiveness of such systems, which combined with harder tyres could greatly affect overtaking in races in 2007, but only time will tell on that one, another school of thought would say that less grip leads to longer braking zones which results in greater chances for overtaking.

[Knock-on]

I imagine there will be some cost savings as there will only be so much you can do.

So, what will the teams do with the extra wonga, burning a hole in their pockets.

Oh, to be an aerodynamics or electronics expert :laugh: