This week's Grapevine brings you information fresh from the paddock on: Any Old Iron? Playing the Safety Game

Any Old Iron?

As the season passes its midpoint, all the teams with the effort to spare are considering the future, and looking at 2003. Of course, the starting point for the concept, is the power plant ­ until that is fixed, nothing else can be. Which leaves Jordan and Minardi, at least, puzzling through the options.

As things stand, Asiatech are considering a sabbatical from the sport, as they look at changing their involvement from engine supplier to modular kit-car plus engine supplier, if they can find any takers for the parts. Even if they do not take the year out, Minardi are not certain of a supply in 2003 ­ their current understanding implies they will need to pay to keep them, and if there's money going out on motors, then that is not necessarily the one to have.

With Asiatech considering their future, Minardi have to either commit to funding their engine programme for the next year ­ and living with the continuing power deficit ­ or forking out for a new engine. Accordingly, the outfit have been putting out feelers, to establish how much bang they can get for their bucks.

Low in the power stakes, and not even beginning to look like a real option, Arrows have an old engine that needs some work. Tom Walkinshaw, with an eye to the future, has been looking for someone to fund an in-house development since it was shut down. He'd very much like to have another team essentially pay for Arrows to develop a unit that they can run themselves, when it is mature and performing reliably.

Of course, this makes little sense to Minardi, who have the facilities to build roughly comparable engines themselves, for their own benefit, and for lower costs. Viability is reasonable, but the downside is a choice between continuing development of their old, Ford originated unit (800bhp, about 145kg, and a packaging nightmare), or trying to develop something from scratch ­ which would be far more expensive, probably unreliable, and unlikely to generate the power needed.

The biggest factor against any 'new engine' route, however, is the anticipated engine rule change for 2004 ­ working towards the new, higher longevity format would compromise power, whilst designing a "current" engine could be a huge waste of effort for 2004.

On another track, Niki Lauda has made no bones of the fact that Cosworth could supply a second customer engine next year ­ though no one at Jaguar is admitting talking to anyone specifically at this time. Potential advantages from the deal include access to other elements of the car (gearbox, electronics, software) as required. Though judging from this year's Jaguar performance to date, there is to be gained from forking out for these extras.

One option that is surprisingly quiet in the rumour mill, is the chance to put a Ferrari engine into the back of the car again. The setup between Ferrari and Minardi is not quite as comfortable as it was when Gian Carlo Minardi ran the show, but it is still there. Of course, Ferrari engines don't come cheap, so any deal would be at a cut price; and the team would come behind Sauber when it came to customer support. Though the reliability of Ferrari power makes seem unlikely that this will be necessary.

Whilst Minardi consider their future, Jordan look set to be in the same quandary, as the paddock anticipates Honda making a change of direction next year. General opinion in the pitlane holds that the lacklustre seasons BAR and Jordan are suffering, is a direct consequence of the compromise from Honda's attempt to provide a full works service to two teams. The refusal to adopt the current 'full package' approach demonstrated by the likes of McLaren-Mercedes, BMW-Williams and Ferrari certainly seemed to leave them in poor standing until Jordan's run of points scoring finishes.

Depending who you ask, the decision to abandon Jordan for BAR was either made absolute before Monaco, or is hanging over the team pending a performance clause in the contract, requiring a score of more Championship points than Toyota by ten races into the season. However, unlike Minardi, Jordan has a contract for a works engine supply from Honda in 2003, so pulling out leaves the Japanese manufacturer involved in the engine equation, either by bringing in Mugen-Honda to re-tune the works engine as a customer second string, or stumping up the cash for a customer deal with a competitor.

That might be enough to afford the second customer Ferrari engine supply, though it would certainly be cheaper to keep Jordan in the works program! Understandably, Honda would rather restrict their layout to the cost of the Asiatech supply.

Playing the Safety Game

The introduction of HANS for next season is not much of a surprise to the teams, but it is fair to say that the drivers are not universally impressed by this imposition, whatever their public views may say.

To its credit, HANS has certainly been responsible for preventing serious injury, and arguably saved lives, in CART, where it has been in use for some time. In high speed frontal collisions, the device limits head movement and protects the neck to a remarkable degree: this makes its use on ovals and super speedways the only sensible option. However, most CART drivers resisted its use on the road and street circuits, complaining that the device is uncomfortable and restrictive.

Returning to Formula One, of all the current drivers, David Coulthard has done the most running with HANS to date, working with DaimlerChrysler to assess it at tests. His initial feedback coincided with the opinion of the CART drivers, namely that it has potential, but is uncomfortable and awkward ­ though the discomfort side has been improved considerably, it is still a problem unless it is fitted very precisely.

To date, the drivers have avoided HANS, not only because it makes it more awkward to manoeuvre in the cockpit, leaving them at a disadvantage to their rivals, but because the vast majority of accidents in Formula One are at relatively low speeds (first corner collisions), or are not frontal. And then the majority of frontal impacts come after long trip through gravel: for example, when Schumacher had his big accident at Silverstone, it was his legs that suffered, not his head or neck.

Accordingly, without a voluntary take-up on the cards, the FIA have mandated its use across the board. And all it has to do is be credited with saving one life, and any driver complaints that didn't already fall on deaf ears will be dismissed.