The V8 makes its debut
Mugello, 24 January 2006 - After Aldo Costa, Ross Brawn and
Rory Byrne came Paolo Martinelli, Formula 1 Engine Director,
and Gilles Simon, head of planning and engine development,
to face the journalists during the press conference to launch
the new 248 F1. "It is a totally new project", began
Martinelli. "It is a return to the past, as the name
of the car demonstrates. We started working on this engine
midway through 2004 and then tested it on the bench. Last
August it made its first outing, at Fiorano, and in the autumn
of 2005 we completed the V8. Now we are close to the final
version. Obviously, in the course of the season we will have
to cope with a very steep learning curve. Gilles Simon's success
in development was underlined: "the calculations were
made long ago and even if the regulation changes were related
to us rather late in the day, fundamental modifications such
as the selection of the centre of gravity had already been
made". "The rules outline global constraints but
do allow a lot of space for projectual experimentation",
continued Martinelli. "The 90° angle was our choice
as was settling on the minimum weight for the non-moving parts.
The real challenge, however, was lightening the weight of
the moving components". "For the first time in ten
years a drop in performance was recorded and this was fundamental.
The change in power meant some greater investment, but,in
the long run, it will be more economical. The overall output
of the engine remains unchanged and so some factors were the
same as on the V10". Martinelli also revealed that there
had been some dialogue between the engineers who work on road-going
cars and those who concentrate on racing models. "We
met the people who work on GTs and exchange opinion in analysing
problems and the methods to resolve them. It was by no means
a one-way communication" "We were certainly on shared
ground", added Simon. "However, there are many differences,
for example in our time schedules. We made a lot of input
and so did they. It was a process of cross contamination".
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