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Ferrari is planning to line up in 2016 with a "completely different car and engine". That was the claim made by president Sergio Marchionne as he visited the Monza paddock last weekend. Many were surprised when they heard those words, as the regulations are not changing considerably for 2016, ahead of the expected rules revolution for 2017.
So with Ferrari already closing the gap on dominant Mercedes, might Marchionne have been stretching the truth? It seems not. Indeed, while Mercedes deployed all 7 remaining engine development 'tokens' ahead of Monza, Ferrari's upgrade cost them only 3. "We believe that Ferrari now has the peculiarity of our system that you call the 'magic button'," said Mercedes' Toto Wolff, referring to a power boost that is most often seen in qualifying.
Next, the remaining 4 tokens will be deployed by Ferrari later this year, and will pave the way for an engine architecture change that will also fundamentally shape the design of the 2016 car, Italy's Autosprint claims. Team boss Maurizio Arrivabene commented: "We must also think about the work of the aerodynamicists."
"Today they have difficulties to continue their development programme because of the dimensions of the power unit. If you look at a photograph taken from above, you can easily see that our car has a wider rear end than the competition," he added. (GMM)
Grand Prix of Belgium
G. Zhou
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Replies (6)
Login to replycalle.itw
Posts: 8,527
So they plan on making the engine smaller? Could be risky, seeing as a size zero engine did not work for McLaren Honda this year. But who knows? Could work.
khasmir
Posts: 893
If I remember correctly, that was one of the problems in 2014. They compromised the PU too much so suit the aero guys.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Could perhaps do it like Mercedes? Their Power unit has the Turbos and compressors located on the opposing sides of the engine to reduce overall size (also resulted in more efficient heat recovery from the ERS-H and MGU-H).
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
-and they havent suffered that much from problems related to heat.
khasmir
Posts: 893
Yep, the Merc design with turbine and compressor on opposite sides of the ICE with the MGU-H in the middle was very clever. I think Honda did something similar but Ferrari doesn't seem to be going that way this year.
Whatever Ferrari do for 2016, I hope they keep improving like they have been so far.
calle.itw
Posts: 8,527
Very much so, but the difference is that Honda places their turbos inside of the "V", instead of outside, and the combined MGU unit right behind the engine. I have found very little about Ferrari's and Renault's designs, and then I have gone through a 30 page pdf from Renault that turned out to just be propaganda for this year. From what I've gathered it has a very normal twin turbo design, and that tells us alot, doesnt it? ;) Dont see why Ferrari wouldnt improve, they improve with a decent pace, and Im sure they'll be up there next year. But its no wonder Red Bull is pissed at Renault, they'd needed some upgrades ages ago.