Ferrari's ace up their sleeve? / Ferrari's trick new engine

When it became known that Lowe was leaving Mercedes, and Ferrari's comments that they ''don't need him'', I questioned them, surely they must have something going on for this year? Well maybe they have...

Ferrari eyes innovative piston solution thanks to 3D printing

Their 2017 engine is almost completely different from 2016, I suspect with their 3d printed pistons they can be a lot lighter than the current pistons. I hope they're on to something. A 3 way fight would be wonderful and absolutely necessary for F1.

 

Article reads like "pie in the sky" with some serious hints of "why we failed" for later.

 

I wonder why they're not using titanium in the their piston heads???? I've heard of titanium connecting rods and valve springs??? It is lighter than steel and has alot of heat resistance. Maybe its cost as in to forge? of FIA regs?

 

Mmmm... printed pistons? Such a radical approach would need to be already running and well tested, I don´t think that this is something that you just can bolt on in the next update specially when you only have 4 engines per season. So I remain sceptical. Maybe for 2018.

 

They stole the piston idea from this kid off the internet:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZlPXsjIrWU

 

As the article says materials are restricted by the FIA.

Don't want to be negative but one of the reasons these engines don't make a lot of noise is the electric motor is doing most of the pushing so I hope they are putting as much effort there.
Pete

 

Does not sound like they have the tech perfected or ready just yet -

--While Ferrari is unlikely to be alone in looking at this technology, Binotto is hoping to get the performance improvements on track as soon as possible – and it could be as early as the start of the season.--

 

lol. Ok i love the comedy of this post... but... actually pretty impressed with the kid... DAMN IT I WANT A 3D printer!

 

Mclaren used to have beryllium alloy pistons, very light meant they could run taller rods, audiably you could notice the difference. Ross Brawn etc (before they knew it was beryllium alloy) couldn't believe that Mclaren run such a large conrod yet able to rev it that high. Ferrari got it banned because ''it was too toxic to make'' (i.e. they couldn't get the technology working quick enough )

Ferrari used titanium conrods in the 550 and others so they've known about that for a long time

 

I'm sure they haven't discovered this today, the fact that it gets talked about today leads me to believe they've been busy with lighter pistons for quite some time as they're talking of trying to implement it very early in the season.

 

Does anyone actually believe that MB didn't look into this a loooong time ago?

 

Unless i am missing something... cant you apply that to every innovation by any team?

 

I think it's just as much about heat management as weight. The different layers make me think they use specific alloys in specific area's of the piston, lightweight when possible, strenght and heat resistent there where needed.

 

I really appreciate the new Ferrari+Marcionne ethos of stfu, keep heads down and let the coming results speak for themselves.

As for an ace up the sleeve, I hope so. We need it. Badly. I'd hate to have to start a new 2017 Ferrari Sucks thread...

 

Actually berylium is really really toxic. A small part of the population suffers from a disease that makes them so sensible to berylium that they even could get intoxicated just with the tiny amount of it present in the exhaust gases.

Yet back in the day FIA was more tolerant than today and gave Mercedes one and a half YEAR to redesign their engine without berylium. Still Mercedes got beaten in their last year with it (2000 season) and their engines had poor reliability, so despite all the moaning from Ron Dennis back then they had no excuses. BTW, Peugeot also used berylium and sucked, with or without it and Mercedes failed to redesign their engine and according to Adrian Newey, in 2001 their power dropped to 1998 levels.

Meanwhile Ferrari developed alloys of boralyn and alluminium that achieved the same result than berylium without any hazards, but at an ever higher cost!

 

The "electric motor" provides the cars with the lower end torque that F1 engines have almost always been missing, whilst the turbo supplies the top-end power.

To say the electric motor does most the pushing is not really accurate. The electric motor does the initial pushing and then the turbo takes over.

As for the lack of noise, that's more to do with the turbo and exhaust layout stifling the noise than the electric motor providing the power.

 

+1

I also believe there are 2 electric motors: MGU-K and MGU-H where the K is the kinetic(KERS unit) and the H(Heat) is the turbo and both provide the low end torque(30 secs worth of battery energy potential before recharge)

 

The advantage of beryllium was not the weight. Due to it's elasticity McMerc were able to use a longer stroke for the same max engine speed.

 

Very interesting. I can definitely see how 3d printing would open new possibilities. Thing is, all the big teams are going to have access to the same technology IMHO - so not sure how long an advantage could be maintained. Still fascinating stuff.

 

400 bar pressure sounds incredible. The return of the spectacular engine RUDs.

 

Agree, but these modern power units have become torque monsters not power monsters like F1 is used to. This is why they do not need to rev them to the 12000 rpm imposed limit ... which also means a reduction of noise.
Pete

 

Imposed limit is 15K....so 3K rpm under it

 

His approach last year of making lots of noise very much backfired on him

 

As I understand it, the 3D printed pistons are high strength steel honeycomb. The printer is the key to being able to build the honeycomb, so as to deliver reduced weight as well as increased strength and heat tolerance.

Of course, that begs the question, what will this deliver in increased performance?

 

Lighter pistons will rev faster. Also less stress on rods and bearings. Can probably lighten rods as a result. So a lighter overall engine as well. An engine expert could elaborate further.