Chevorlet Has Work To Do At Long Beach

The news of the day has come from the Chevrolet camp as the American manufacture has decided to change the engines in all 11 entrants for the Long Beach race. This comes days after James Hinchcliffe had an engine failure at the Sonoma test, followed by Andretti Autosport and Penske Racing ending their days at lunchtime.

According to the IndyCar regulations, a team must have an engine last 1850 miles before a change. If it fails before that mileage mark and doesn't fail during a race, then a 10 grid spot penalty will be issued. Along with the 11 Chevrolets, Sebastian Bourdais will also be penalized 10 grid spots for changing his engine between the Barber and Long Beach rounds.

My Spin On The Story: IndyCar is following there rules. Granted we may disagree on what the rule is but they are following what the rule book says. I would much rather see a team go unpunished if their engine fails during testing before a race weekend. However, I feel if a team has an engine blow up during a race weekend, but before the race, then a penalty should be enforced. I don't think Hinchcliffe should be penalized but I agree with the other 10 Chevrolets being penalized. I say that because they are changing their engines out of fear. They are afraid of an engine blowing during the weekend or worse during the race. Fair enough, but how can a team be so certain their engine is going to blow? Just because Hinchcliffe's engine failed does not mean the engines of Carpenter, Castroneves, Hunter-Reay and Power will all fail the next time they hit the track. Sure, Chevrolet are looking over all the engines they give to their IndyCar teams and have all the data and knowledge but one engine's life is not the same as another. The wear on an engine depends on so many things.

Conclusion: I disagree with Chevrolet's choice to change the other 10 engines after Hinchcliffe's failure. I think Hinchcliffe should not be penalized because his failure happened during testing while the remaining Chevrolets should be penalized for the change because (unless Chevrolet comes out and says otherwise) those engines did not fail at the test (Hildebrand and Carpenter weren't even testing for starters so how can they go without a penalty?) and were changed in fear they would this weekend. The rule should be adjusted by IndyCar to take into consideration testing.