F14-T- Development & News

[PadGeT]

Wern't those vertical strakes asymmetrically aligned? I recall they had pretty unequal distances among each other.
For comparison pic from Australia:

Or is it my eyes are paying tricks?

[Kiwi Nick]

Why is Alonso going out on a mixed set of tires? Yellow front, white rear...I believe that is against the regulations.

[Majki2111]

What updatees are expected in China? I know a lot, but i never read what...

[Hornet]

Why is Alonso going out on a mixed set of tires? Yellow front, white rear...I believe that is against the regulations.

It was a mistake, the put on the wrong tires

[Winter]

Yes, exactly, it's not just about building a good engine now, it's about getting the entire power unit (engine + ERS) to work properly. So it's much more complicated.

But, even if we have some problems with this ERS-unit, we are even more behind in combustion-unit(ENGINE) performance.
If there's any truth behind those rumours that Mercedes ICE produce 50-70hp more than us due that innovative turbine---V----compressor solution, there are no excuses,
we are beaten in something we should be the best at.

[Jas]

Picked out some bits relevant to us....UNFORTUNATLY WE DID NOT ANSWER THE WEIGHT QUESTION!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you for that, Pat. Coming to Luigi Fraboni - welcome. [Luigi is] head of track engineering for Ferrari on the engine side. Talk to us about the achievement of getting these very complex machines - the power units - operational and racing to the point we are now, particularly from where we were in testing here in Bahrain only a few weeks ago.
Luigi Fraboni: Of course for us and for all the other manufacturers of engines it was a very hard job. Honestly, looking at what we have now and what we were in the end of January, for me it is close to being a miracle. Of course the result we have achieved is due to the job of everyone in Ferrari, everyone at home and everyone here at the track. It’s something that we are still developing and there are a lot of things to learn. Basically with every run you learn something and every run you try to put something in the power units for the following one. I think that for us there are still a lot of things to do but there are a lot of jobs we have already done and we are very happy about this.

Q: Talk about the strengths and weaknesses of the Ferrari power unit as you see it at the moment?
LF: Well, of course, I think it’s quite early to say but in the first two races having four Ferrari engines on our side that saw the chequered flag I think is a very good result, as you said thinking about where we are in the end of January. And then so we also start to see the real reliability of the power unit because this is basically the third race for someone and they start to be above 2,000km by the end of this weekend and for sure I hope this is one of our strengths. In terms of mapping and in terms of fuel consumption I think we are in quite a good shape. Of course in terms of absolute power this is something… you can see there lap time between the car, there is a difference of speed between the cars but the difference of speed is not only the power unit. So we have some ideas. We know we have to improve on our side on the power unit but this is also car related so we’ll have to do the best on this.

Q: (Vincent Marre - Sports Zeitung) We have seen now the differences between the engine. My question is, let’s assume - just assume - that at the end of the season you will achieve 100 per cent of the potential of your engine. What percentage are you today in the round, in terms of performance of this engine?
LF: I if look at what we have done in these two months, I think that we are already at 70-80 per cent of the potential. I hope we will get the rest in the next two months. I am confident of this.
RT: I think it’s a very, very difficult question. Whether to know what is the potential we’ve got in the engine at the right time here, we know. Whether we will be at that potential tomorrow, I hope we will be much further than that, so it’s very difficult to answer. Let’s put it this way: we know we have quite a lot of potential and we can’t get the most out of it. Maybe it’s 20 or 30 per cent, we don’t know. But of course I think we will have, I hope, another 20, 30 per cent more by the end of the years. It’s all the difficulties to know where we’re going to get to by the end of the year - and that’s the work with this new power unit. We just keep on developing and sometimes you will find out something completely different and you get the lap time out of it. It’s part of the game

Q: (Luc Domenjoz - Le Matin)It seems that some cars have trouble meeting the minimum weight requirements so the question to the technical directors is: did you set specific weight requirements to your drivers, and what do you think of the fact that some drivers do not drink any liquid during the race just to save an extra kilo?
PS:inly maintain weight and in fact perhaps lose a kilo or two but I’m happy to say that we don’t have a weight problem on our car so the drivers are allowed to have a drink bottle in there. We do carry ballast on the car, we’re pretty happy with things.
AN: We’re certainly right on the edge of the weight limit with both drivers and our drivers are on the lighter end. I think the power units have come out heavier than expected and that’s putting a lot of pressure on the teams. It’s another hidden factor that drives the cost up because saving weight tends to be a very expensive business.
PL: The job of a driver getting to his optimum weight has always been there and the thing is you always want the driver at the lowest weight possible while maintaining his health and fitness because he needs to drive properly through the whole race. That’s a training task so our drivers have pursued that over the winter just as normal to make sure they’re at that optimum. There’s no issue that I’m aware of in terms of drinking during the race. You need to drink to stay healthy.

Q: (Michael Schmidt - Auto Motor und Sport) Remi, you introduced on two of your teams today a second generation of engine. Does this apply for all six components or was only part of the components new?
RT: I think you will have the answer quite soon from the FIA papers that you will receive maybe tomorrow. It is of course a brand new V6 we introduce but I will not go into details at that moment. You will know tomorrow.

[Nero Horse]

But, even if we have some problems with this ERS-unit, we are even more behind in combustion-unit(ENGINE) performance.
If there's any truth behind those rumours that Mercedes ICE produce 50-70hp more than us due that innovative turbine---V----compressor solution, there are no excuses,
we are beaten in something we should be the best at.

We have the same engine layout as Merc...



And we might be behind right now but we'll catch up sooner or later, I have no doubt about that.

[Jas]

hope that's true...even if it is not as good, it gives us hope we havnt completely messed up

[Nand0Nand0]

From the limited pictures we've seen I'd say you can count out that we have that configuration. Not sure it has any worth either. You pay a big weight penalty for starters.

[Muhammad Ansib]

We have the same engine layout as Merc...



And we might be behind right now but we'll catch up sooner or later, I have no doubt about that.

I pray to God that its true. so this shows that we have good potential and we can catch up soon

[Hornet]

I would wait for a picture confirmation first.

[Bertie]

Just a thought/question about the ECU maps etc

With the new rules the electrical energy is transfered to the track in an intergrated way not at the drivers request as KERS was. Is it possible (allowed by the rules) for the on board computer to use positional information about where the car is on the track (GPS) for the deployment electric power?

If possible and if its not currently done there is potential for improved performance e.g. take sepang 3rd sector the ECU could anticipate the change from fast flowing sector 2 and switch engine map automatically (this is normally done manually by the driver). If this automatic optimisation effect is multiplied many times (e.g. 1/sec) then the this would provide a better PU usage than a driver controlled system could aswell as removing a distraction from the driver.

If GPS info is not allowed by the rules under no comunication from pit wall to car then the driver could provide this positional information at specified points e.g as they pass each sector marking (obviously the more points the better as would be more accurate). The computer could then extrapolate the cars movement on track by using speed/rpm and yaw values that are measured by the car already.

The same thing could be done for the harvesting priorities and brake by wire.

Am I talking rubbish?

[PadGeT]

Interesting, RBR, Ferrari prefer running without monkey seat.

[Bertie]

Interesting, RBR, Ferrari prefer running without monkey seat.

Don't think its a preference, it needs to be sacrificed for top end speed.

[tifosi1993]

Sakhir International Circuit, Bahrain (05/04/2014)

[RedPassion]

The sidepods fins connetted with the floor is much larger an inwards than before,look at the 4th photos upside.

[F14T]

Know its a bit late but are there any updates for this weekend, both mechanical or aero.

[Hornet]

This is the clearest picture I've came across yet of Ferrari's PU, on the Marussia car. Maybe someone can tell if the compressor is located at the rear of the engine or not

[Avanzamento]

Credits go to Blackout from f1technical.net

http://www.racecar-engineering.com/cars/marussia-mr03/

upmaruuu.jpg
upmaruuu2.jpg

[Majki2111]

[bobi_ve]

It's totally ironical what Todt yesterday said:
"“Mercedes, Renault and Ferrari knew for five years what engines they would need to use this year,” said Todt. “Mercedes has simply done a better job. Such is motor sport.”

But he and all FIA authorities forget about at first first plan and second that all 3 engine manufacturers had only 2 and a quarter legal winter test session (only 9 days) before "engine development freezing."
And this were stated by FIA as "engine development freezing" not "PU development freezing."

Other problem was prohibition of new engine testing with a legal F1 car on track for last 5 years.

They even hadn't whole 3 test sessions (12 days) before engine development freezing on 28 Feb.

So what is point if other 2 engine manufacturers Ferrari or Renault have better built ICE but not whole PU package.

If FIA really plans to create more "engine war in F1" it would be way better and fairly to extend PU testing and development lets say for whole 2014 season and giving the same for Honda tests with 2-3 years old Mclaren car this year on some F1 track.

In same time they would increase actual engine battle in 2014 and prevent Honda for gaining competitive advantage compared to the others.(Some info says that Honda already have blue prints of Mercedes engine.)

[Hornet]

Luca DM have said he isn't trying to seek immediate changes this year, and he understands Merc position (in the interview shown on Sky just now). Doesn't appear that Luca's issue is with the engine itself either, but with the limits that forces driver to be conservative. He specifically mentioned the fuel flow thing.

I think FIA needs to stop using Merc's success as a defense. Everyone knows they are doing a better job, but we're talking about what we can change next season to improve it. And although the teams knew what engine they would use, I doubt anyone knew how bad the outcome would be. Therefore they have to react to the problem and not just ignore it saying oh everyone knew about the rules.

[Nero Horse]

Kind of an off-topic question, but does anyone know whatever happened to Paolo Martinelli? Why wasn't he involved in the development of this new turbo engine?

[PadGeT]

This is the clearest picture I've came across yet of Ferrari's PU, on the Marussia car. Maybe someone can tell if the compressor is located at the rear of the engine or not

Think its located near the front.The black box at the bulkhead is the supposed turbo housing i guess. So the inline V6 must be below that.The turbine must be on the opp side of the turbo shaft that connects it with the compressor, closer to the exhaust manifolds. Battery is placed inside the cavity under the chassis and above the floor as dictaced by regs.

[PadGeT]

Kind of an off-topic question, but does anyone know whatever happened to Paolo Martinelli? Why wasn't he involved in the development of this new turbo engine?

In October 2006, Martinelli moved to an executive role within Fiat, Ferrari's parent company.His position in Ferrari was taken over by Gilles Simon

[Nero Horse]

In October 2006, Martinelli moved to an executive role within Fiat, Ferrari's parent company.His position in Ferrari was taken over by Gilles Simon

Ok, thanks for the info. Bhoy, we sure could've used Martinelli's knowledge and experience in the development phase of this new engine. His amazing V10's were absolute monsters back in the day and I'm sure he could've helped us a lot this time as well.

[PadGeT]

IMO Giles Simon was the real genius.Shame he was pushed for the FIA job.

[Nero Horse]

IMO Giles Simon was the real genius.Shame he was pushed for the FIA job.

Simon became the head of the engine department in 2007 but our glory days engines from 1999-2004 were all developed under Martinelli's supervision.

[PadGeT]

I hope we are still not suffering from y250 vortex drag penalties like last season.

I am not sure if we are still not properly utilising the effect of underbody vortices. This makes us not make efficeient use the limited undertray to generate downforce. Afraid we arent properly using the vortices to seal the undertray and better control the flow direction to feed the diffuser. This was apparent is testing in Jerez, when we tried out two different iterations of diffuser.
This is where is think Red Bull are ahead at the moment. They run visibly high rake than any manufacturers.They are able to exploit the groundeffect D/F more than any other team.

[tifosi1993]

Sakhir International Circuit, Bahrain (06/04/2014)