IndyCar is looking to adjust and possibly simplify the penalties handed down for unapproved engine changes, according to series president Jay Frye.
Currently, each entry is mandated to use a particular engine for at least 10,000 miles, and is limited to a total of four engines per season.
Cars that have engines changed outside of those parameters, are given a grid penalty for the following race.
This can have a compounding effect of penalizing a driver multiple times in certain circumstances, due to the way priority pit stalls are assigned based on the previous week’s qualifying effort.
Talking with RACER, Frye outlined how he feels the current penalty structure is having unintended consequences, and will be reevaluated in the offseason.
“We don’t like showing up on a race weekend and having a penalty as an announcement to start off the event,” said Frye. “That, to us, is not really a great thing, so we’ll look at this after the season and see if maybe we should do something different.
“There’s a situation where an unapproved engine change almost becomes a three-pronged penalty.
“Let’s say you have an issue on a race weekend, and then you have a grid penalty based off wherever you qualify the next weekend.
“And then the next weekend after that, your pit selection ends up being penalized because it’s based off of where you actually start the race for the previous week.
“So if you qualify on pole, but have that penalty to serve and you’re starting seventh, the next race, your pit space is seventh, not first. That’s the way it is right now, but that was never the intended consequence. That’s something we want to clean up.”
Alex Palou has been on the worst end of engine penalties this season, with three separate grid drops having been applied throughout the season.
One of those penalties was a knock-on effect from having one Honda engine break down in preseason testing, which currently counts towards each entry’s season-long allocation.
Despite having the most engine penalties of any other driver, Palou still leads the points standings heading into the season finale from Long Beach.
