Toyota's Marmorini about his F1 career

Luca Marmorini once in charge of the engine for the 'Red Prancing Horse'. Now, the engine produced by the Marmorini-led Panasonic Toyota Racing engine department has demonstrated not only the best reliability in F1, but also a reputation as a top-class performer. Marmorini: "The reliability of our engine is the result of everyone's efforts."

Interview with Luca Marmorini

Luca, you joined Panasonic Toyota Racing back in September 1999. How did your career path lead you to Cologne?
"Going back to my university days, I studied mechanical engineering at Pisa in Italy and I also went on to complete my PHD in the same subject. During this period, I was also able to spend some time in the United States. Upon completion of my PhD, I was hired by Ferrari to work in their racing department. I was there for ten years from 1989 to 1999, but not always in the engine area. I was actually hired initially on the chassis side, as I had experience in composites, especially from my time in the US. But being in the calculation department, my eyes were opened up to what was being done in other technical areas. Step-by-step, little be little, I was moved on to the engine side. From 1995 I was Project Leader of final Ferrari V12 which raced in the 1995 season. In 1996 I became Project Leader of the 047 and 048-coded engines that were used by the team. The last engine I worked on was the 049 V10, but my subsequent move to Toyota meant that I did not have the chance to follow this engine during its racing life."

Were you always interested in Motorsports?
"I was always interested in motorsports and always said that I would work in motorsport or in research and development. Basically I got the chance to work at Ferrari and I thought at the time that I had to try. It was a bit of a dream for me being Italian and if I had not tried it I would have spent the rest of my life thinking “what if?”

What do you think you would have done had you not joined Ferrari?
"Hypothetically, I think I would have continued my studies at university. I already had a post graduate fellowship at MIT, so my life was actually already mapped out when I got the chance at Ferrari."

Were you an F1 fanatic?
"I always watched Formula 1 on television but was interested more from a technological standpoint. I was not especially mad on Ferrari, but there was a period of time when I followed Gilles Villeneuve. Forghieri was my hero from a technical point of view. For a young engineer he represented the best for everyone to aspire to."

The Secret to Reliability is in the Manufacturing Process and the Pursuit of Quality

Toyota engines have always had a good reputation but it seems the results are only just starting to show this. How do you evaluate Toyota’s progress since the first race in 2002?
"I am pleased with the results so far. Generally we have always done a good job even if the results have not been there. The quality of work is not evident when you do not get the results but for me it has always been there. It has been almost like we have had the gears in place but up to this season we have not been able to put them all in the right sequence. It was a similar experience in my previous company when we had good packages but when things were put together, the end product did not produce the expected result. 2004 was a disappointing season when we expected good results but did not perform well. The results this season are the product of a long and difficult process, but I think we should be happy with what we have achieved at each stage along the way. It has been a continuous improvement process and also last year we showed some potential."

Toyota reliability seems to be far and away superior. What is the secret of producing and maintaining engines at such a high level?
"This is the result of a complicated process we put in place from the very beginning and not just a result from the engine. From design and production through Quality Control up to the quality of assembly, if any of these steps fail, you will never get the reliability. No-one is failing engines due to design mistakes these days. Typically, whenever we have a failure, the problem is traced back to production or batch problems, so we had to learn to improve that over time. In a certain sense design has to be robust enough to have a good repeatability on the production process. What we are seeing this season is the result of four to five years of activity from the team as a whole unit. This season we have run 44 engines in 11 races with the supply to Jordan as well and in those 44 we have seen just 2 failures in race weekends, both of which were minor issues at Jordan. In between the targets, we are also proud to have let the teams run a lot of mileage in practice sessions to help the set-up of the car. We are consistently amongst the teams with the highest weekend mileage and I think this can also be deemed as a tremendous success."

The V8 is an Extremely Stimulating Challenge

What processes are involved to ensure all the varying factors of engine design and build are fully incorporated into the final product?
"Overall performance is a series of components and not just power-related. We have to consider the engine weight, the centre of gravity. Both of these are important parameters, but also the integration of the engine with the chassis. Having everything working under the same roof is therefore a big advantage that we enjoy at Toyota. For example, most activities on the exhaust are now more aero-driven than engine-related. Additionally, on engine design for 2005, one of the biggest changes actually came from optimisation of fixation points, so working under one roof helps us massively in conquering these hurdles."

What do you foresee as the technical challenges with the 2.4l V8 engine in 2006?
"We accepted this technical challenge in a very positive way. The V8 is a new engine and even if we use a lot of internal parts that are similar to its V10 brother, it is a completely new unit. The level of limitation that the FIA has given us is quite high, but the project still makes our job technically stimulating. We are now trying to have a V8 that revs at similar levels or even higher than the best V10. This poses a good challenge for all auxiliary parts related to the engine, given the much higher level of vibration. We are quite ahead with our targets at the moment, even if we are struggling a bit with reliability, but we also did some valuable runs in Jerez in July and we are working to our plan well."

The Important Relationship between Engine and Driver

Can you explain the term “engine driveability” to us?
"In F1, with traction control, the driver can theoretically run at full throttle into a corner and the rest is taken over by electronics. Honestly this is not the case because if the engine is difficult to drive – and by that I mean that the torque gradient is really rough -the work that must be done by the electronics is much higher and leads to greater oscillation of the drive train. This places a particular emphasis on engine driveability and is one of our prime targets for development. Olivier Panis asked us from the beginning of his involvement with Toyota to have an engine that could be driven easily with no traction control and this means we develop the engine to be smooth enough for the driver to focus on performance rather than wasting concentration on controlling the engine. It can save a massive amount of time over one lap."
What role does the driver play in engine development?
"The feedback of the driver is very important. All four of our drivers – Jarno, Ralf, Olivier and Ricardo - are highly competent at developing the engine. I mentioned Olivier because we have been working with him for three years and we have recently given him the chance to take care of our new V8 baby and to head up development on that. For race preparation, the driver can already tell us before a race where the critical corners of the track will be for the engine, so we can start to do some dyno activity well in advance to map the engine to support the driver during the weekend."

Every Day is Another Exhilarating Challenge

What would winning a race mean to you as leader of the entire F1 engine department?
"Winning our first race will almost certainly be a huge celebratory day for me and my team. When we got our first podium in Malaysia this year, it was a fantastic day. People in the factory were visibly happy and the result removed a lot of collected bad moods. The team had an injection of motivation, so I can’t wait to see what effect the first win has. In Malaysia, the engine was running its second race and I was so nervous I barely watch the race at all. The resultant podium was amazing but I only watched the final laps with one eye open!!"

What advice do you have for aspiring young engineers?
"The main message I would give is to say that if you love this kind of job in motorsport, it is not a closed environment. There is unfortunately nowhere for graduates to learn this trade, but with the right technical degree and through perseverance and gaining racing experience, it is possible. Even without my job, I would still be a fan of racing, so to work at Toyota is great – it is like a hobby. Everyday there are new things to do, new challenges to undertake and I relish this atmosphere. As long as I can do this job, I will be happy."