Bleacher Engine Article

Thought this may be of interest from Bleacher report: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/44284-ferrari-engine-woes-not-just-for-customer-teams

Perhaps the big news coming out of Budapest this year is "Massa robbed of victory".
Perhaps not.
Any avid F1 viewer can by now tell you that something funny is going on with the Ferrari 056.
A Ferrari engine failure is not exactly news in 2008—it has earned itself numerous DNFs in the customer cars of Toro Rosso and Force India, but up until Sunday's race had only parked a works car in the Australian Grand Prix.
However, the driver of that car, Felipe Massa, fell victim once again to the 056's fickle reliability. Leading the race with three laps remaining, Massa's Ferrari engine decided it had raced enough.
Also interesting was the pace of fellow Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen. After (presumably) news of Massa's failure reached him, the Iceman slowed considerably in what was seen by many as an attempt to conserve a possible wounded engine and secure his finishing position.
Is this all just a rather bad case of luck, or is Maranello aware of something more sinister lurking in their hardware?
Will the biggest question mark for a Ferrari championship come not from driver or car performance, but in the form of a frozen engine that will continues to wreak havoc on all three Ferrari-powered stables this season?
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Meh.... article is so-so. Some of us said this after Australia... with the Engine Freeze, will a team with a crappy engine be doomed for at least that season (if not longer)? If your rival has made a breakthrough and got a stronger engine than you, will they, per the rules, hold that advantage with no possible way of losing it?

Its an extremely poor short-sighted regulation aimed at cutting cost to enhance the sport, but it ultimately detracts from it.

 

I have to agree that an engine freeze is completely ridiculous in a motorsport like Formula 1. One of the most amazing things about it is the technological innovation and the fact that a car they ran three or four years ago is completely obsolete today. Trying to cut costs in Formula 1 is like trying to stop the earth from spinning, the teams are going to spend the money, if it's not on the engine it will be on something else crazy. Renault has already proven you don't need a Toyota budget to win championships so all this cost cutting is only hurting the sport.

PS: Still bummed to watch Felipe's engine go up in smoke last weekend.

 

I could'nt agree more.

 

IIRC, the "freeze" isn't really a "freeze" as generally interpreted..... You are allowed to change things (with the FIA's knowledge) to improve reliability and/or safety. This is the point Flav was making a while back - "Renault have stopped engine development in accordance with the regs, but others" (who he didn't name of course) "have continued to deploy new parts...."

Hopefully, the Scuderia can approach the FIA with FM's blown lump and fix whatever it is that broke without penalty.

Cheers,
Ian