The brutal punishment F1 teams could face after FIA qualifying trick ban

Formula 1 teams that continue to use now-outlawed engine trickery could be dealt with severely, Crash.net has learned.

Following the opening three races of the season, the FIA and F1 are reviewing the current regulations and are making tweaks to improve the spectacle.

But one tweak has focused on closing a loophole which gave an unintended competitive advantage in qualifying.

While regulations dictate that a driver will lose electrical power gradually in order to prevent a sudden loss of speed, Mercedes and Red Bull-powered teams had been circumventing this by entering shutdown mode, which keeps the power at a higher level for longer, before locking the car from using its MGU-K for a minute.

Approaching the end of a qualifying lap, this gave a small advantage with no cost.

While the system will remain in place, Crash.net understands the FIA has written to teams, informing them that this practice is no longer permitted.

What’s more, the penalty for ignoring this instruction will be considerable, as it would be considered a “technical breach”.

This term denotes that a car was running in a state that does not fulfil the regulations, as previously seen with ride height issues, cars being underweight, or DRS slot gaps being incorrect, to name a few.

All of these issues result in a disqualification, and Crash.net has learned that improper use of the shutdown system on the MGU-K will be treated as such.

With all the data to hand, it should not be difficult for the FIA to detect or teams to prove that there had been a serious issue which required the system to be activated.

However, as this trickery is only used in qualifying – the loss of pace for a minute being too great of a penalty for any team to consider already – the penalty would become either a pit lane or back of the grid start.

Given the trick produced a minimal advantage, it is unlikely that any team would consider the continued use of this method worthwhile.