Ferrari to reuse Sakhir engines in China
Date published : 13 Apr 2010 - 10:51:08
Ferrari has revealed that it will not have to fit a brand new engine into Fernando Alonso's car for this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix following the failure in Malaysia, and will instead reintroduce the unit raced in Bahrain.Alonso dropped out of ninth place with two laps remaining in the last race at Sepang following an engine blow-up, raising the prospect of Ferrari having to use a fourth different engine on the Spaniard's F10 already this season this weekend.The Scuderia was forced to make a precautionary engine change on both its cars prior to the season-opening race in Bahrain due to overheating concerns, problems it then experienced in the race with the fresh units meaning these weren't used at the next round in Australia.However, with conditions expected to be far cooler in China, Ferrari says the Sakhir race engines can be pushed back into service on both Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa's respective cars.Each car has eight engines it can use per driver over the season and we plan our useage strategy around this, Ferrari engine and electronics chief Luca Marmorini, said. As a precaution, we opted not to use the Bahrain race engines in Australia, but they will be used in China, having concluded that they are fit for purpose, despite what happened at the Sakhir circuit.After Alonso and both the cars of its customer team Sauber suffered race-ending engine failures in Malaysia, Ferrari said it would conduct an urgent investigation into the problems.Having quickly made clear that Sauber's problems were not related to Alonso's engine failure, Marmorini has now confirmed that the team has traced its driver's blow-up to a structural failure which it believes was at least partly linked to the downshift problem the Spaniard had to contend with all race at Sepang. We have carried out an in-depth study into what happened and the two problems are not related to one another, he explained. In Sepang, Fernando's engine suffered a structural failure, of a type we had never seen during the winter. We believe there was a role played by the unusual way in which the driver had to use the engine during the race, because of the gear selection problems he experienced right from the start. Additionally, there is no connection with the problem the Sauber team experienced on the engine front at the last race, which we believe was down to an issue with electronic sensors.Marmorini adds that Ferrari, who will introduce a further series of aero updates onto the F10 in Shanghai, can generally be satisfied with both the car and engine's performance so far.I'm happy because I think the Ferrari package is quick, even if it could always be quicker of course, he said.Having said that, our pace in the race can give cause for satisfaction on the engine and car side, even if we still have much work to do on the engine front, getting even more out of it, working within the restrictions of the current regulations.
