Formula 1 blog - Linksheaven

Turbos to return to F1? F1 & GPMA..

There’s a fascinating interview with Max Mosley and Professor Burkhard Göschel to be found in an unlikely spot here. The interview talks about the future developments for Formula 1 technology, how it is being aligned with roadcar development and also has some background as to how the FIA/GPMA dispute came to be resolved.

Some quotes:

In the longer term we are looking at the possibility of a completely new F1 engine reflecting the industry tendency which is to have a downsized, turbo-charged engine.

Max pointed out those areas and I also want to point out another area we have to look at: is the education of our engineers. It is interesting to make an engine capable of 22,000 rpm but there is no interest within the car industry to have such an engine. So in the end our young engineers are operating in the wrong area. For us at BMW and at other car manufacturers F1 is an area to train our engineers to take decisions and in developing future technologies. It will keep car manufacturers in F1 if F1 is focused on future technology for the car industry. If F1 takes this route then there is a future for each manufacturer in F1.

MM: You can see from that, when we are all accused of trying to dumb-down F1 when we froze the engine, in fact it, is the exact reverse because making the engine go faster and faster is completely pointless as Professor Göschel has just said. Whereas the sort of technologies we are talking about – energy recovery, heat recovery, re-use and fuel efficiency, bio fuels and so on – all of those are directly relevant to the industry. They are also the latest high technologies as opposed to the technologies of the past.

MM: It’s also true to say that there is a complete understanding from the manufacturers that we need to keep the independent teams going. For example, in 2009 anyone who wants can fit the device which recovers the energy from braking and uses it again for acceleration. But an independent team, or indeed a manufacturer, does not have to develop that technology. There will be a set price for which those who have developed the technology are obliged to sell it to another team. So manufacturer ‘A’ might decide not to spend the money on developing the device. But they will have to buy it from Manufacturer ‘B’. That happens in the real world between manufacturers anyway. But if I’ve got an independent team, I can go along to whichever manufacturer has developed the most successful system and buy it ready made. The manufacturer is actually pleased to sell it because it shows his technology is the best.

mmm not sure about that last quote..

5 comments November 20th, 2006

Those wacky Finns

Remember Mika Hakkinens playboy image when he wasn’t in his car? Wild parties, supermodels, police picking him up from a ditch at 6am whilst out cold? No? Neither do I, I don’t think I ever heard a single story about Mika getting up to anything outside of F1.

Raikkonen appears to be well on his way to fixing that reputation amongst Finns for dourness however. I wonder though in the ultra professional environment of Ferrari whether that image of being a bit of playboy will count against him.
Ross Brawn had nothing to say on the subject

“We have to wait and see how that all evolves at Ferrari,” Brawn told Racer magazine when asked about the Finn’s ‘playboy image’.

He added: “Let’s wait and see what happens - I might dig myself into a hole if I say anything.”

Edit - forgot the obligatory Youtube link 

1 comment November 20th, 2006

Noisy neighbours put stop to noisy F1 cars

Villagers living next to a McLaren test track at Elvington airfield near York in the UK have won a battle to limit the number of days that F1 cars can test there.

During the summer hearing, resident Timothy Vicary claimed the “horrendous and outrageous” noise from vehicle testing was ruining the life of him and his wife. He said the noise of the testing of Formula One racing cars and motorcycle events made them depressed, irritated and angry.

Another resident, Denise Howard, compared the noise of the squeal of tyres on tarmac during testing to “howling banshees whipping through the house”.

It was just as well it wasn’t the first McLaren engine from 1966, which was described as:

Bruce admitted that the engine’s greatest success was in being by far the noisiest thing running round Monte Carlo, and the raucous echoes it set up between the cake-icing buildings of the old town threatened not only the occupants’ eardrums but their window panes.

The court was told that McLaren’s test team could quit Britain altogether if the case was lost.

Add comment November 20th, 2006