The rules called for an engine freeze this year. Only mods to increase durability. Up until these last 2 races engine reliability has not been an issue with the team. Even after any "durability" mods. Now we get 2 blown engines in the last two races. Are they increasing the HP or rpms past agreed to rules with other changes that push the engine past mechanical limits causing them to blow ?
What the PR department said is the only evidence we have about this issue. If we don´t give credit to it, the issue is hardly debateable.
Ah, And that ref being Max the pervert, The one which I would gladly remove his testicles with a blunt instrument resembling some kind of gardening tool, only he might enjoy it... And I'm not forgetting even if Bernie the weasel has.
In racing, as in business, "oops" is a "four letter word". After seeing the way Massa smoked the doors off the McLaren leaving turn one in Hungary, I was half convinced that the Ferrari was "hotted up". But thinking back to earlier venues (such as Canada), the Ferraris do seem to have the better grunt powering out of turns. Heck, the low end grunt is one feature that has made me prefer normally aspirated Italian mills for the street for the past 30+ years.
LOL, your choice Dave... a blunt one though.. I'am only jealous that I'am not a millionaire aristocrat with the sexual capacity of a rutting rhino, it's a constant niggle...
I agree that Ferrari appears to have more grunt, but not smoke the doors off grunt. Had a good blast in mine today today, but then a light appears on the dash, check engine!!... oh well...
The Toro Rosso and Force India also had impressive top speeds compared to their overall performance, I doubt that Ferrari would call the engine departments of those teams and say "Hey Buddies, we found a nice workaround for rule #17, here's how it works, but don't tell anyone...". Just seems that Ferrari was lucky that the engines got freezed when they had a power advantage. Saw that light today, too (okay it was in a Miata, but I share your feelings )
Mine does, and I'm lucky it also has a roof!! ever wondered why Lewis is good in the wet, try a trip to the coast here, another wet summer day. Hopefully it's a minor electric problem, its running fine..thanks Dave.. Florian come and sort it .....mate rate...
Not true.... if you look at the relative speeds at the checkpoints between the cars from the various races, it's clear that the Ferrari is up on power over where it was a while ago. It would also be debateable if it is more reliable since the engines have blown up more frequently since their "reliability changes". There is a great thread on the F1 tech site about this where some folks have been keeping track of the speeds of the Ferrari through turns now as opposed to earlier in the season. In the last 2 or so races, the Ferraris have been up to 10kmh faster in turns than the next closest cars, the McLarens. But earlier in the year, the McLaren was a few mph faster in the turns than the Ferrari. Ferrari have said their lubrication system is more efficient and suffers less parasitic loss, so they did get a "slight change" in power in addition to increased reliability. I am not sure what the status is on this, but it definitely does appear that the Ferraris are quite a lot faster in these last couple of races vs. what they were several races ago. If Ferrari have cheated, they must be penalized. But I think the larger picture is the pure idiocy of these rules. How can you tell big companies in a major racing league that they can't innovate and improve their engines? Furthermore, when you say "you can only do it for reliability, and the FIA must approve the changes", then all you are doing is giving the FIA the right to fiddle with the championships even more. If Max thinks that McLaren are running away with the WDC or WCC, he simply has to approve some of Ferraris "reliability changes" and give them a power increase. And that's bull. During Matchett's pre-race segment during the previous race, they showed McLaren saying they made 100 engines for various uses throughout the season. Does Max really think his two-races-per-engine rule really saves any money? What it *did* do was give *him* control over who has what power level, and he can tweak the levels based on how he wants the championship to flow. It's bullcrap and it's happenning way too much in F1. The fact that they hand out these 10-grid-spot penalties is crap too. They hamper drivers at the following race for issues during this race. And they have teams making stupid decisions like "should we tempt fate and run the motor or take a penalty" (like Kimi at this past race). They should just let them innovate and let them race!
un-restricted V10s turbo...... wish we could see them in action, rather than this engine freeze nonsense. V10s - Sounds of Magic V8s - Sound of bull****
No one is going to be able to pull the wool over the eyes of anyone. There is no dark magics here that Ferrari have over the other teams in the engine department. All teams employ the very best engineering talent that money and hookers can buy. No magic sauce is going to net Ferrari more torque at a lower RPM than any other engines made by others. Engine tech is done, all the big gains now are done via aero
Not entirely. I doubt there's any "hidden magic" that the FIA aren't aware of. Whether it *remains* approved may depend on the "suspense" in the championship, as said. But these aren't entirely "spec" engines, either. There are differences between engine makers. Heck, Mercedes bought Chrysler, IMO, just to get the Mopar engine staff. (The engines were the only part worth a durn in most Chryslers.) Shortly after buying Chrysler, Mercedes released their first new engines in many years. And having rebuilt their own engine department, Mercedes then sold off the rest of Chrysler. Ferrari has always been known for their engines. So it's not like all these engines are exactly alike. The unanswered question here is whether the customer engines may have gotten some of the defective parts, and were they recalled? But I agree that the whole "cost savings" excuse is nonsense. The key is to guide the spending of money *away* from one-off specialized venue-only components, unique to the series. Pop-off valves, and even full carbon brakes are of no use on the assembly line. If you wanted completely unique machines, you could return to the ground effects and hoover fan cars. The new KERS rules, on top of everything else, is just complete insanity -- a case of the FIA trying to match the stupidity of government bureaucracies. Regulating agencies should not dictate engineering. Guide, yes. Dictate, no. Perhaps the FIA should rediscover the homologation rules that produced some fine limited edition street cars, before FIA became more interested in dictating the results of WRC and F1 championships.
There's been some speculation that the recent improvements come from new lubricants not engine mods. The theory is that by improving the oil less can be carried and weight reduced. FWIW
