MOTORSPORT: Engine boost for Ricciardo

A move by the FIA will give Renault and Ferrari a better chance of making up the power gap to F1's dominant Mercedes

Loophole in rules will allow continuous, but still limited, development

Daniel Ricciardo's hopes of a bigger challenge for this year's Formula One world title have been improved with news that the initial three engine manufacturers in the hybrid era will be allowed to develop their power units throughout the season.

However, the apparent ruling by the governing Federation Internationale de l'Automobile runs counter to calls – including its own – for F1 costs to be contained in the wake of the collapse of two teams while others are in dire financial straits.

And it is no certainty that Renault and Ferrari can match the might of Mercedes.

Red Bull Racing (RBR), the top F1 team for four years to 2013 with Renault V8s, was furious last year that the French manufacturer's V6 turbo was as much as 70 horsepower down on the Mercedes power unit and demanded improvement for this year.

Meanwhile, a French former F1 driver, Franck Montagny, admitted over the holiday period that he has blown his career after testing positive to a derivative of cocaine at the second round of the new Formula E all-electric open-wheeler championship in Malaysia in mid-November.

While young Aussie Matthew Brabham was a late substitute in Montagny's Formula E seat with Andretti Autosport at the third round in Uruguay, after the Frenchman withdrew for "health reasons", Marco Andretti – the third generation of the American racing dynasty – will fill the seat at the fourth event in Buenos Aires, Argentina, this Saturday.

The FIA has not publicly announced the end of the freeze on development of F1's hybrid power units throughout the season, but Autosport.com has reported on a bulletin to teams from the FIA's technical chief, Charlie Whiting.

Renault and Ferrari had been lobbying hard against the freeze, but Mercedes – whose factory cars won 16 of the 19 F1 races last year (Ricciardo won the other three in his first season with RBR) – was resisting strongly.

The relaxation flagged to the teams by Whiting will mean that those three manufacturers will be able to make changes, albeit limited, to their power units throughout the year rather than have them "frozen" from the start of the season in Melbourne in mid-March.

However, Honda – which is returning to F1 as the engine supplier to McLaren – will be precluded from making changes after February 28, as the other three were in 2014, the first year of the V6 hybrid power units.

The FIA had intended that development only be allowed each off-season and that even then it be limited, with any changes during a season being allowed only for "reliability, safety or cost-saving reasons".

Development is limited by a "token" system related to the components on an engine and its hybrid systems. The entire power unit is made up of 66 "tokens" that are weighted individually between one and three, depending on importance, and fewer changes are allowed each season up to 2020.

Autosport's F1 editor Jonathon Noble has reported that the FIA has "accepted there was a loophole in the regulations" that will allow the initial three manufacturers to make changes throughout this season.

'The situation changed dramatically when it was suggested to the FIA that the engine rules did not actually stipulate when a final engine had to be lodged for 2015," Noble wrote.

"Although the FIA had always been under the impression that new engines would have to be homologated for the first race, this was never explicitly laid down in the rules.

"An FIA spokesman said: 'It was always envisaged, although not explicitly stated in the rules, that manufacturers would have to deal with modifications on the engine within the constraints of the rules, and then submit their 2015 engine [at the first race]. It is simple, but when you read it [the rule book], it doesn't say that unfortunately.' "

Noble said that, with the FIA admitting that the wording of the regulations was open to interpretation, "it has subsequently told teams that the 'most logical and robust' way forward is to accept that there is no actual date for 2015 homologation".

"It means that manufacturers now have the option of introducing upgrades to their engines throughout the season – as long as they stick to the 32 development token limit that is laid down within the rules and do not exceed the four-engine per car limit for the [year's] campaign," Noble said.

He said that, while the regulations do not specifically state dates for Honda to submit its homologated unit, "the FIA is standing by its view that it must stick to the February 28 date that the current manufacturers faced last year".

Noble's report indicated that while the "token" system allowed for changes to almost half of a power unit this season the scope dropped to 38 per cent next year, 30 per cent in 2017, 23 per cent in 2018 and five per cent in both 2019 and 2010.

How that phasing will apply to Honda, and the overall effect on F1's already astronomical costs, is not yet clear.

Positive drug test a negative for Formula E

Frenchman Franck Montagny is not disputing that his body contained a derivative of cocaine at the second Formula E event at Putrajaya in Malaysia six weeks ago.

The FIA has not yet announced a penalty on him, but the 36-year-old, who drove seven F1 GPs for the now-defunct Super Aguri team in 2006, has told French sports newspaper L'Equipe that "auto sport is maybe over for me". Indeed, more than that – that it's "dead".

"I made a stupid mistake. I am guilty," Montagny said.

"At the end of the race [on November 22] I see the guy who tests signalling me.

"I knew, in my head, immediately. I knew it was over.

"I got on the plane ... then I called my parents, to explain. I was ashamed.

"I knew it [my career] was dead."

Montagny twice won the World Series by Nissan early this century and became a regular test and development driver for Renault in 2004.

After his brief stint racing in F1 he drove for France's team in the now infamously-defunct A1 GP series in 2007 before a move to sports car racing.

He was on the podium with Peugeot at the Le Mans 24-Hour in 2010 and '11 and won races in the American Le Mans Series.

He joined Andretti Autosport for the Formula E championship that began last September and was second at the first event in Beijing but only 15th at the next in Malaysia before testing positive.

Fellow Frenchman Jean-Eric Vergne joined the team for the Uruguay round, qualifying on pole position at his Formula E debut and fighting for victory until suspension problems with two laps to go.

Marco Andretti, an experienced IndyCar driver but yet to drive a Formula E car, will be Vergne's teammate in Buenos Aires this Saturday, sidelining Aussie Matthew Brabham after he was classified 13th and 17th at the past two rounds of the series.

The Andretti team also has used yet another French driver, Charles Pic, who was third in the Beijing opener.

MOTORSPORT: Engine boost for Ricciardo

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