Ferrari and Honda have both dipped into their allocation of power unit upgrade tokens in the build-up to the Canadian GP, becoming the first manufacturers to take advantage of the loophole in this year’s rules that allowed for some development during the season.
Ferrari has used three of its tokens, and Honda two. However it doesn’t necessarily mean that the upgraded engines will definitely be deployed in Montreal, although the Japanese manufacturer has indicated that they will be.
A Technical Directive from the FIA’s Charlie Whiting to the teams today said: “Further to our note on 13 March (TD/008-15) I can confirm that, in preparation for the Canadian Grand Prix, two power unit manufacturers have used some of their allocated ‘tokens’.
“As a consequence, and in accordance with Appendix 4 of the F1 Technical Regulations, each manufacturer now has the following number of ‘tokens’ available for use during the 2015 season.
“Mercedes 7
“Ferrari 7 (3 used)
“Renault 12
“Honda 7 (2 used)”
The tokens are for performance upgrades, and are independent of any modifications for reliability purposes that are allowed by the FIA without use of tokens.
Adam Cooper F1 
Renault better start using some of those tokens
And Renault have announced ‘reliability upgrades’…..
Tokens are, above all else, merely playing with words….
These tolkiens are hard to understand. In the past they’d do a tolkien & change engines like 10 times at every weekend. Playlife. But if it makes Farrari & McClaren faster, then I don’t mind. Having no competition is killing this season – just like last year. The repeat of 2012 levels of BOP is wot I want. U can’t always get wot U want though.
Vettel is God.
Haha! +1
Will be using “Tolkeins” from now on into the future.
This whole token idea is lunacy. The manufacturers and teams have already been forced to spend fortunes designing and building these new hybrid power units, so just let them keep spending as they see fit. At least let them try to get something out of this massive investment.
The numbers aren’t making sense to me, does Ferrari have seven tokens left, or they had seven and now will have four? And why does Renault have 12 and Mercedes 7 yet Honda and Ferrari are the first to use theirs? Was it this biased at the beginning of the year? I was under the impression that all manufacturers had the same amount of tokens. I can see why Ferrari and Honda want to use theirs prior to Canada, as this is a power track that also has heavy braking, and if Barcelona is any bellwether it indicates they’ll need more from the MGU-K than they’ve been getting to even maintain the status quo.
They were given the same at the end of last season. The numbers relate to what they had not used by the start of this season and could thus deploy during the year. Honda was awarded the average of what the other three had not used.
Thank you Adam, for your prompt reply I appreciate it.