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[spankyham]

Clayton's news on Ferrari's 2014 engine.

Most of this is hearsay, so please take it all with a huge grain of salt, but, as we are officially in the "off-season" it may help us while away the days til the start of next season.

We all know that Ferrari have been conspicuously absent from the media release market that both Merc and Renault have been active in. In this weeks Italian Autosprint apparently Luca Marmorini was asked when Ferrari would preview their engine to the media, to which he replied "never". There were reports that Ferrari were in deep trouble in their engine development program (Turon Finnish newspaper reported this). The leak I have heard is that Ferrari have really pushed the boundaries in the exotic materials used to construct the engine and have a very light weight unit. It has been reported that other manufacturers are pushing for a 5kg lift in the minimum weight but Ferrari are firmly against that. If (remember the opening proviso) IF this is true then it would give Ferrari an advantage in terms of how and where they ballast the car. Red Bull had great success with their "split" KERS battery system which gave them greater control over ballast placement (that is banned in 2014 however).

Perhaps Ferrari are quiet because they are in trouble and have nothing to show, but, if they have produced a satisfactory power-plant and done it in a very lightweight manner then that would actually be a good and positive innovation.

[Denthúl]

Some other engine-related news. Probably not a bad idea for Honda, given how the Mercedes engine has been for the past few years.

Honda beginning to poach Mercedes staff says Wolff

Honda, to return to F1 in 2015 with McLaren, has begun to poach staff from rival manufacturers like Mercedes.

That is the claim of Mercedes' motor sport chief Toto Wolff, who said the Japanese marque's quest for talented and experienced F1 staff is "quite civilised" at the moment.

And Wolff told Germany's Auto Bild that Honda's moves to poach Mercedes engineers is "quite normal".

"We're operating in a competitive environment, and I think everyone is looking for the best engineers," he said.

"So it is not unexpected," Wolff insisted. "We know what contracts are running out, and if we want to keep them, we will work on new ones in good time."

Wolff refused to criticise the behaviour of McLaren's 2015 engine supplier, who have been absent from the grid since the disastrous final two seasons as a full works Honda team in 2007 and 2008.

"At the moment we have the feeling that it is quite civilised," said the Austrian, referring to Honda's efforts to poach engineers.

"We do not have the impression that our engineers are excessively concerned. However, this could happen. They (Honda) need to put their programme together bit by bit.

"I could imagine at some stage their efforts to court staff becoming more aggressive," added Wolff.

[CookinFlat6]

It would make more sense to wait till 2014, see which engine is best then poach engineers from that team. It wouldnt reall make sense to poach, say, Ferraris engineers now then find out that they built the worse engine by a mile

[What's Burning?]

Smells very fishy.They would only need to hide their engines from a scale not from a YouTube video.

[CookinFlat6]

It does seem a little odd, when the 'good' thing about the Ferrari engine is that it actually makes the minimum weight threshold. I am not sure being lighter and having to add ballast is better than being 20% above the reliability or 100 bhp above the others.

maybe the Ferrari engine is so stylish and goodlooking they want to maintain that advantage over the rest by hiding it

[spankyham]

It does seem a little odd, when the 'good' thing about the Ferrari engine is that it actually makes the minimum weight threshold. I am not sure being lighter and having to add ballast is better than being 20% above the reliability or 100 bhp above the others.

maybe the Ferrari engine is so stylish and goodlooking they want to maintain that advantage over the rest by hiding it

I think being light may have some advantage. Especially if others are asking for a 5Kg increase in weight. The ERS, as a component of total power output is greatly increased. Size and density (especially its correlation to heat) have been historically important elements. If Ferrari's engine is indeed light and under the required weight, it will give a lot more scope in terms of the ERS components. Whilst I realize a lot of people here believe the Merc KERS was the best, I actually believe the Ferrari KERS system was better. A lot of the great starts from both cars were because the Ferrari KERS worked better and earlier than others. Being able to add ballast is pretty important IMO because, although the forward/aft distribution is prescribed, ballast can be placed specifically where it will do the best and, more importantly, can be used to control COG. With less aero reliance in 2014 mechanical grip becomes more important.

[What's Burning?]

There is more than one road to success with the regulations at least in 2014. I doubt that one manufacturer will get all of it right. After all it's engineering not magic. So there is a trade off to everything in the world of engineering. I'm excited about next year and the year after that as I think it will be some time until things become homogenized once again.

[sagi58]

...maybe the Ferrari engine is so stylish and goodlooking they want to maintain that advantage over the rest by hiding it

Generally speaking, no one "hides" anything that is beautiful!

[CookinFlat6]

Surely they have to hide the engine within the bodywork?

[sagi58]

Surely they have to hide the engine within the bodywork?

You make my head spin 'round and 'round and 'round!!
Wasn't it you that just said:

...maybe the Ferrari engine is so stylish and goodlooking they want to maintain that advantage over the rest by hiding it

Or was that you just taking another gratuitous potshot at my team??

(( full marks for being consistent!! ))

[CookinFlat6]

There's a difference between hiding it from the media before the car is launched ( like we were discussing)

and

Not hiding something at all because it's beautifully (like you were saying)

[What's Burning?]

That's exactly why I go commando.

[CookinFlat6]

[sagi58]

There's a difference between hiding it from the media before the car is launched ( like we were discussing)

and

Not hiding something at all because it's beautifully (like you were saying)

Yup... but, you muddied the waters, and I was asking for clarification!!

[CookinFlat6]

There's a difference between hiding it from the media before the car is launched ( like we were discussing)

and

Not hiding something at all because it's beautifully (like you were saying)

Yup... but, you muddied the waters, and I was asking for clarification!!

Didnt realise it was a question, the exclamation mark made it look like a statement or exclamation. maybe it was one of those trick questions?

...maybe the Ferrari engine is so stylish and goodlooking they want to maintain that advantage over the rest by hiding it

Generally speaking, no one "hides" anything that is beautiful!