FIA may move to equalise F1 engines further

[Scotracer]

1 23 Heikki Kovalainen 14:08:11 320.8
2 22 Lewis Hamilton 15:24:47 320.5
3 2 Felipe Massa 14:34:38 320.2
4 4 Robert Kubica 15:30:18 319.9
5 1 Kimi Räikkönen 15:10:47 318.0
6 5 Fernando Alonso 14:08:05 317.9
7 3 Nick Heidfeld 14:07:10 317.4
8 11 Jarno Trulli 14:58:04 316.4
9 6 Nelsinho Piquet 14:08:09 315.8
10 14 Sebastien Bourdais 14:29:12 315.4
11 10 Mark Webber 15:13:03 315.0
12 12 Timo Glock 14:27:03 314.5
13 8 Kazuki Nakajima 14:06:24 314.5
14 9 David Coulthard 14:41:36 314.0
15 15 Sebastian Vettel 14:53:41 313.5
16 7 Nico Rosberg 14:48:28 313.2
17 17 Rubens Barrichello 14:30:32 312.9
18 21 Giancarlo Fisichella 15:27:50 312.5
19 20 Adrian Sutil 14:08:04 311.1
20 16 Jenson Button 14:54:26 309.6

Those are the speed trap results from Friday Practice 2 at Montreal (I used Friday because the track was in good condition then). In 2006 there were 3 engines that were reported to be high in power; Ferrari, Renault and BMW. Now, in 2006 Mclaren was struggling with the development of their V8. I have a question surrounding this. In 2006 (I attended the 2006 French Grand Prix) the Mclaren had a very coarse sound and a definite lower pitch than all the others (especially the BMW and Honda). Could they have been running a Big Bang firing order? Whatever the cause, this has now been changed. In each Grand Prix this year the Mercedes V8 has been screaming as highly as the BMW and Honda (whereas the Toyota and the Ferrari sound quite flat). Could Mclaren have done some significant changes during 2007/2008?

On to the times themselves; I mentioned the Mercedes in particular because they have the highest speed trap and have done for the past 2 races. How could an engine reportedly be lacking in power do so? Superd aerodynamic efficiency or have they done some significan work to their engine? Compare this with Ferrari - as you know this engine is reported to be the most powerful on the grid (approaching 800BHP) but neither Massa or Raikkonen are at the top.

Just some food for thought.

[WhiteBlue]

Ferrari this time lost top speed by not running their front wheel fairings. They said it was due to brake cooling problems.

the whole issue is speculative right now. there is just a rumor and I havn't heared a comment from a team or the FIA on this. there was a lot of talk that Ferrari doctored the reliability upgrades. if that has put the FIA in action I guess it went wrong for those who kicked the talk off.

[Conceptual]

I think that it comes down to creative rule interperetation. I don't think that there is any dominant package on the grid, now that we have Ferrari, McLaren, and BMW at the top. Equalizing the engine output with different rules for different teams is rather rediculous. If one team has acchieved an increase, the other teams would be allowed to follow suit. Maybe they need to do some more work in those areas, and reap the same rewards.

Tomba, I agree with some of what you said, but we are NOT seeing a dominant team for the 5 year freeze. Renault won in 06, Ferrari in 07 (barely), and this year looks like a 3 team toss-up at this point. There really is no actual proof that any team is dominant due to the engine freeze.

Chris

[Belatti]

I think Tomba referred to the imposibility for the Japanese teams to catch European teams.

I think that´s because their blurry focus and also they have the sympthom Ferrari suffered many years ago: too many big chiefs, not enough indians
(not sure if the expression exists in English: muchos caciques y pocos indios)

[Conceptual]

I think Tomba referred to the imposibility for the Japanese teams to catch European teams.

I think that´s because their blurry focus and also they have the sympthom Ferrari suffered many years ago: too many big chiefs, not enough indians
(not sure if the expression exists in English: muchos caciques y pocos indios)

That term is VERY prevalent in the USA. It is mostly used to describe the value destroyers in upper level management of most large corporations. The unnecessary "chiefs" simply maintain the position that was given to them instead of using that position to build more value. So they are a chief by title, but even lower than an indian by production.

"Too many chiefs, not enough indians."

Chris

[WhiteBlue]

What would happen if the power regulation would end the engine freeze? Technically it can't be too difficult to measure torque and multiply it with the rpm. then the SECU can limit the power regardless of engine design. with such a limit any spending would immediately be aimed at saving fuel because only fuel saving can give an advantage. that way development can be maintained and the objectives met. the problem in my view is that several manufacturers have restructured the engine departments and going back on the plan would be seen as willy nilly.