Twenty-five places for Alonso, twenty for Stroll, ahead of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. I wanted to check that in the sim, starting from pole to see where it lands. The game doesn’t go beyond P22. Past that, it shows a black screen, which, in sim language, means that position doesn’t exist.
Under the actual rules, teams are allowed a set number of power unit elements per season, which can be replaced free of charge within that quota, what’s called the pool. Going outside the pool costs ten places. Going back into it a second time on the same element costs five more. Alonso received a new internal combustion engine, a new turbo and an auxiliary component, two of those parts completely new, never replaced before: hence the two ten-place penalties plus the five-place penalty added on top. Stroll, for his part, received a new turbo, a new energy store, a new control electronics unit and a new auxiliary component, each already replaced once before, so five places per element. In the sim, I’ve never had to do that maths: at home, a broken part just gets put back, and there’s no invoice.
I reset it, set the grid to exactly twenty-two cars, the real season’s number. Alonso, with his twenty-five places, literally falls out of the simulation. In the real world, he just starts last, behind Stroll, who at least had the decency to take only twenty places, which still fits within the field. The Honda engine lacked reliability early in the season, with vibrations wearing parts out faster than expected, which explains why we’re already here.
Twenty-five places on a grid of twenty-two is a variable nobody modelled. In my game, that’s called an array overflow. In real life, it’s called the back of the grid, and there’s no error message.
The delta between the two drivers, in theory, is five places we’ll never see on the starting sheet, since both start from the same place, right at the back, Alonso probably just behind his teammate. In theory.
It’s true, we checked: RacingNews365.
