Formula 1 blog - Linksheaven

On V10/V8 equivalency

February 15th, 2006

Posted by Bealz in the forums

From what I have read about the subject, the FIA asked Cosworth how they could write a rule to let V10 engines into the V8 series without giving them an obvious advantage. Cosworth went away and, using their own engines, came back with guidelines and parameters for how to do exactly that. How to de-tune a V10 to be slower than a similar V8.

Now let us first presume that Cosworth will be a mid to high end engine this season, not quite up there with Renault, Mercedes, Ferrari and Honda, but certainly nowhere near Midland or Super Aguri.

When asked how they justified the results, Cosworth basically said that their tests proved that in a race between their V8 engine and their de-tuned V10, the V10 could never win the race. This shows that the V10 is de-tuned to the point where it is slower than the Cosworth V8. This is all the FIA asked them to do.

It is my contention that the FIA never asked Cosworth to go away and come back with a scenario where the Cosworth V10 would be slower than the slowest car on the grid, presumably the Aguri or the Midland.

It is also my contention that there is no point in Toro Rosso turning up if they are going to be forced to be slower than Super Aguri just because Aguri are running a V8. Surely if Midland were to complain that the V10 was quicker than them, what is to stop Aguri complaining too. They are no less an F1 team than Midland. No, and I feel quite strongly about this - in my opinion equivalency does not equal automatic disadvantage against all opponents, it merely means a (more) level playing field - and as such with all of this in mind i.e. that the V10 Cossie is slower than the V8 Cossie, but that the V8 Cossie will probably be fighting for points finishes; there is a distinct chance that the Toro Rosso will be quicker than the backmarkers while the equivalency rule goes unmodified.

I have no faith in the FIA leaving it that way but that is a seperate discussion altogether.

What I am saying is that by my understanding under current rules, the new equivalency rule only forbids Toro Rosso from being quicker than Williams but gives them a fair chance against anyone below them. Whether this is fair or not I don’t know, but I do know that you can not start tweaking the rule without going to the Nth degree. That is to say, if it is clear at the start of the season that STR are the next quickest team after Williams and the teams 1 and 2 places below complain - and then the FIA concede and start tweaking, it can only end with STR becoming the slowest team in F1 because as they slip down the grid, other teams will say “well now we’re just below them and they have a V10 engine - make them slower so we can catch them”.

One advantage they clearly DO have in my opinion is that a de-tuned V10 is running far less stressed than a V8 running at the same speed, and this will no doubt have a knock-on for STR’s reliability. Liuzzi has already come out and said that reliability seems at this point to be their biggest asset. Think about it. If a V8 had to run @ 17,000rpm to get to a certain speed but a V10 only had to run at 15,000 to reach the same speed, I’d hazard a guess which engine will blow up first.

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