Race against time - Ferrari working round the clock with engines

Thanks for the update Carol, weird as how the Engine Regulations were frozen, maybe its the McLaren/Microsoft ECU giving them Gremlins (j/k).

 

Let's say the problem is something other than an ECU/mapping issue... what penalties would be levied against Ferrari for changing out the engines and/or engine parts? What if they discover an inherent problem - for example they need to change the pistons or ring design... how does that come into play with the engine freeze?

 

Exactly what I was thinking. It seems like this article was written by someone who is unaware of the penalty handed down to drivers who have to change engines, as it makes no reference to the rule. Then again, the first engine change in 2008 will go without penalty.

 

Exactly what I was thinking. It seems like this article was written by someone who is unaware of the penalty handed down to drivers who have to change engines, as it makes no reference to the rule. Then again, the first engine change in 2008 will go without penalty, remember?

 

IIRC, if the driver never did finish the race, there will be no penalty as a DNF is punishment enough.

 

It's not hard to blow engines from bad tuning software...

If the parameters for HOW the engine manages timing, fuel and ignition aren't closely accounted for, not programmed correctly, or not tuned correctly, you can kiss your engine good bye.


Ferrari's engine woes could be anything from mechanical bits like bad rings, weak bearings, bad oil pumps, to something completely trivial like not properly accounting for the change in barometric pressure and temperature in HOT HOT HOT Australia on the new ECU. Or even the equation of how the ECU will retard timing based on temperature parameters.


Whatever the cause, here's to hoping they find it quickly and remedy it asap!

 

Well I think both drivers can get a free engine because they both DNF'ed - and it probably won't be their one freebie for 2008 either.

But I am more curious what happens if Ferrari, lets say, decides that the engines need a slightly different cam profile. Surely the engines for the next race are already on-site so firstly entirely new engines would have to be sent in, and even if they were able to change the engines on-site, there is an engine freeze, so aren't Ferrari not supposed to be making changes to the engine? So if they show up and say "Sorry mate, gotta throw a new cam in these mills!" the FIA scrutineers may put the binders on that.

I'm not sure how that works... Ferrari are the first ones to have this issue since the engine freeze. What happens if a major problem is discovered with the engine and it's the engine they submitted for the freeze? Surely the FIA couldn't force them to run an engine knowing it had a defect likely to cause a lot of kabooms, could they? Would they?

 

And that right there is why the engine freeze is the biggest crock of **** ever.

If AMG Mercedes, for example, submit their engine plan and its better than everyone else's they have 4 years of engine superiority? Complete BS.

 

Yep...blow and engine and get a DNF as a result and you don't get a penalty for the next race.

A team (forgot which) has already gotten approval to redesign crappy engine internals. Don't remember what though, but they do allow changes to be made to engines if proven to be unreliable.

 

Ron Dennis is having fun with the new big red buttons on his pitlane console: "detonate Kimi ECU" "Detonate Felipe ECU". It sends a signal to a secret compartment in the McLaren evil empire compound where malevolent dwarves furiously tamper remotely with the 20 other cars on the grid

 

You jest but according to this Ferrari are already blaming McLaren

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/19032008/13/ferrari-suspects-ecu-blame-aus-woes.html

Pathetic

 

This topic has been beaten to death....which is to say that FIA F***ed up big time in picking McLaren to provide a standard ECU. They should never have been picked, further, they should have been excluded from racing as a team from 2007-2008. There is no way that a McLaren sourced ECU is even remotely fair to Ferrari.

That's like giving Russia the ability to program launch controls for USA's nukes during the Cold War.

The McLaren ECU thing is ugly and a blatant snub to fairnesss.

And I'm not speaking from the viewpoint of a Tifosi. I'm rooting for Heidfeld/BMW this year.

Ferrari got screwed last year and this year when the FIA chose not to exclude McLaren for two years. Ferrari got screwed again when the FIA allowed McLaren to produce the computers for every car on the grid.

Insane.

 

Please explain why ?

 

http://en.f1-live.com/f1/en/headlines/news/detail/080319085743.shtml

 

+1000

 

+1m

Forget being a Ferrari fan this isn't fair to any of the other teams. As I said in the other thread I don't want to jump on the conspiracy bandwagon, but why did all the Ferrari powered cars have engine failures?

 

I can't see any team being allowed to change anything.

You've gone both ways on this. One team has been allowed to rebuild their engines since Melbourne without penalty?