ringo wrote: ↑12 Sep 2022, 07:06
vorticism wrote: ↑12 Sep 2022, 03:44
ringo wrote: ↑11 Sep 2022, 22:10
You easily copy an engine by literally buying the best engine available. lol
You cannot do that witha aero.
https://f1-insider.com/wp-content/uploa ... s-1200.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ERIFqtBXYAE1Duk.jpg
Did Merc sell parts to RP or did RP copy Merc? Renault nor Ferrari nor Honda would have been able to buy a contemporary Mercedes power unit for research. Why would Merc have sold them one? By the same logic, a team could buy bodywork or last years car from another team and copy it; again, though, why would any team do that? "Buy the best available" as you say.
You dont need to research the PU. A team just buys it. I am making a distinction between PU and aero. Formula 1 regulations are such that a team must build its chassis and aero. It does not have to do that for an engine.
You said a few times it's easy to "copy" an engine. Copy in English is not a synonym for purchase. It implies duplication of an object. Copying a PU would not be a trivial matter or both teams and other engine manufacturers would have done it.
It can simply buy it. That's what Williams did in 2014 and they went from midfeild to podium finishers. It was a very realistic jump up the grid.
Same for Merc, midfield to 1st thanks to the same engine swap. You're saying Merc would have sold RB power units 2014 onwards had they knocked on the door?
Now you cannot make such an easy jump if aero is the performance differentiator and the engines are frozen and basically the same.
Ferrari may have had something akin to this in 2010 and 2012. Finished within 3 or 4 points of RB those years in the WDC.
With Newey being a ground effect specialist, 2023 will still have redbull in a class of their own. What the FIA should have done is have a spec under floor, or much more restrictive one, if they really wanted to save cost and increase competition.
The FIA could have supplied a spec PU to the entire field in 2014 onwards under the same reasoning; saves cost and enhances competition. Maybe Merc could have been the supplier. Would this have given the results you seek?