F1 crews prepare for new protocols
LONDON Formula One mechanics could take twice as long to change an engine under new measures to protect them from COVID -19 and reliability will be key, according to Racing Point technical director Andrew Green.
The new protocols come into force when the season starts in Austria on July 5 and Green told reporters Thursday his team was coming to terms with the new reality of everything taking more time.
The procedures restrict the number of mechanics and engineers working on the car together. Team members must also wear protective equipment such as masks.
“It’s very different and it’s going to be a real challenge going forward,” Green said after the team conducted a limited mileage test at Silverstone on Wednesday with Canadian Lance Stroll.
“Jobs now take a lot longer, and we have to try to manage that,” he added.
Teams are already subject to curfews during a race weekend, aimed at ensuring mechanics do not work through the night, which adds to the headache.
They face eight races in 10 weekends once the delayed season starts and Green said drivers needed to be aware of how long it could take to fix damage from any practice incidents.
“I suspect changing an engine now will take quite some time,” said Green. “We can only have certain members of the crew working on the car at any one time, and that does limit the speed in which you can do a power unit change.
“When we get into the real meat of the car, and centre around the power unit, we’re probably looking at, in some cases, it taking twice as long.”
Haas F1 principal Guenther Steiner told reporters his mechanics and engineers would be going through the protocols at the factory rather than a track before they flew to Austria.
Meanwhile, Steiner said Haas is not planning upgrades to its 2020 Formula One car until the consequences of the COVID -19 pandemic are clear and the team knows what it can spend. Steiner pointed to uncertainty over the number of races as the main factor affecting his budget.
Formula One had scheduled a record 22 races for this year, but that has since been whittled down to 15-18, with only eight Grand Prix races in Europe confirmed.
Steiner, whose U.s.-owned team has one of the smaller budgets in Formula One, said Haas could not risk committing money to upgrades and then be unable to pay for them and risk missing races.
Formula One has already agreed teams will keep this year’s cars in 2021 as a cost-saving measure.