Last year, Ferrari took out the
constructors and the top driver’s prizes in F1, as they had
done the year before - but it was harder and the fight was
tougher and closer. Part of that was brought about by the
‘lottery’ of a one-lap qualifying system - if it rained
when you were about to qualify, tough luck, and partly through
the new method of points allocation. However, for whatever
reason, it was closer.
At
the start of each new season, the F1 teams release their new
offerings. Here is the all new Ferrari F2004.
At the official launch in Italy, Ross Brawn
the technical director was very forthright about the fact that
Ferrari are more focused this year than they were at this
stage last year. According to Brawn, “We want to strengthen
the organization - look at the areas we can make better. There
are some areas where we’ve introduced new tasks where
we’re not doing at the moment or aren’t being done well.
Luca Baldisserri is a good example - during 2003, because of
the compressed practice schedule we weren’t optimizing the
car as much as I would have liked to see.”
“Aldo
Costa is the same - he’s been a very valued servant of
Ferrari for a number of years and he’s a very good engineer
and a good design engineer and organizer and great support for
Rory (Byrne - the designer). In the next few years we want to
see Aldo take more responsibility - because one day, all of us
(Brawn, Byrne, Martinelli) will stop and we want an
organization which is built from within. Because if Rory
wanted to stop - I look around F1 and I don’t see anyone to
replace Rory directly. We would be much better building an
organization from within - and we’re taking the first steps
to do that.”
“You can apply the same approach to the
engine group,” says Paolo Martinelli. “We have people
making their own career and there are people in the design and
technical departments, we’ve made those areas more efficient
but we’ve also given the people in them more responsibility
to younger engineers to push the projects. They respond to me.
We have a staff of young engineers that we are growing. We
continue to make big steps to their careers. More importantly,
we’re developing a continuous dialogue between the engine
and the chassis departments - we’re working with Baldisserri
also.”
One of the areas that F1 explores is the
use of new and space-age materials. One application of this is
in the combined gearbox and differential. Designer Byrne says,
“The fundamental change in material usage is in the gearbox
casing. In the past, we’ve had a cast titanium case - now
we’ve got a hybrid material one. It’s another step in
improving structural efficiency and reducing weight. We’re
introducing much more composite use into the casing.”
(What has to be understood is that the
casing doesn’t just hold the cogs together, but the gearbox
is part of the engine mounting system and the rear suspension
hangs off this as well. Dr. Iain)
Being on top of the heap brings with it a
problem whereby it may be too ‘risky’ to try something
totally innovative. Pitpass.com asked the question - Do you
need to remain conservative to stay on top? “I don’t think
so,” replies Brawn. “We’re conservative in some respects
because we want to make sure we don’t make mistakes. But if
our guys come up with a new concept and we can prove every
element of it and the influence it has on other parts of the
car, which are equal, or even a bit better, then we would be
very keen to do it. For many years now it’s been an
evolutionary process. That’s our philosophy. And the
continuity of people is important to maintain that philosophy
- it’s a philosophy that’s so far been successful.”
“Take for example our inboard rear
suspension layout inboard,” says Byrne, “it wasn’t
easily seen but three of four years ago that was revolutionary
and subsequently adopted by our opposition. We have made
fundamental changes in the past - it’s just that they’ve
often been out of sight. And the exhaust system blowing out of
the top deck, we’ve been doing that since 1998. So we’re
not scared to introduce revolutionary concepts if we’re
satisfied of their benefits.”
It was asked at the launch whether Ferrari
would be totally ready for the first race in Melbourne on
March 7. “In terms of timescale, it’s nice to have more
time before the first race,” says Brawn. “But you’re
balancing that against the performance of the car. Once you
start to cut patterns and build pieces, to some extent
that’s the concept of the car frozen. We wanted to make sure
we made a good step between last year and this year - it was
the balance of knowing when we could stop designing the car
and start making it.”
“In fact, we’ve reached our targets of
when we wanted to have the car ready so it’s not late. There
have also been quite a lot of ’04 components that we’ve
been able to test on the old car - more so than in previous
years. The old car has been running the complete cooling
system, a lot of transmission and engine parts. We’ve done a
lot more mileage to check the reliability than we would have
done normally.”
“We could get a surprise,” he
continued, “maybe something will happen. Because of the
regulation changes, and because the first three races are in
pretty hot countries, and the performance of our competitors,
we made the decision that we wanted the new car at the
beginning of the season, and on balance, we felt that was the
right decision.”
So the Ferrari is obviously well along the development
path, but the first race will soon sort out who got the drop
at the drawing board stage! This article also shows that the
Ferrari F1 challenge is not just Michael Schumacher. It is a
total team effort. Roll on Melbourne!
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The Worst Car of the Millennium
can run on wood!
A couple of years back they had a
web-search to find the Worst Car of the Millennium, and guess
what? The Trabant didn’t win! Instead the winner was a
hapless beast from Yugoslavia called the Yugo.
 Yugos
that don’t go!
Now while it is hard to imagine something
worse than a Trabant, the Yugo apparently defies description!
According to some reports the best feature of the Yugo was
that it had a heated rear window, so your hands didn’t get
cold while you pushed it!
They actually exported the things to
America, but the hopeless reliability factor caused its demise
over there, even though it was some thousands of dollars
cheaper than anything else.
However, in what used to be Yugoslavia,
before they bombed the hell out of it, there are those who
have to use a Yugo. Engineer Anton Peterka was one of those,
but didn’t like the fact that he couldn’t get enough
petrol for his car, so he adapted his Yugo to run on wood!
Yes, wood! The owner says it is not a new
technology, and is based on incomplete combustion of wood
producing carbon monoxide, hydrogen and methane. That mixture
of gases is as flammable as gasoline vapour. When the mixture
of gases becomes flammable, which can be easily checked with a
cigarette lighter (boom!), the gas mixture mixes with air in a
1:1 ratio and starts the engine.
The advantages are that you can grow your own fuel, with
around 70 kg of wood needed in taking you 140 clicks! The
disadvantages include having to stoke the firing chambers as
you go (as Yugo, oh I am sorry about that pun) and you can’t
turn it off instantly, nor start very quickly, so is seldom
used by Yugoslavian bank robbers!
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Toyota officially number 2 - or
is it number 1?
While the people at FoMoCo are in disarray,
having lost the position as the number two automaker in the
world to Toyota (Ford 6.72 million vehicles to Toyota’s 6.78
million), Toyota are not stopping there. They currently have
11 percent of the world market and are aiming to have 15
percent by 2010. GM is next in their sights!
However, there are other ways of looking at
this battle. If you look at profitability rather than just
numbers of vehicles sold, Toyota are already way in front.
FoMoCo posted figures of 495 million USD profit in 2003, while
GeeEmm looked more healthy at 3.8 billion USD, but Toyota
posted 7 billion USD profit for the same period. Almost twice
as much as GM and many times FoMoCo’s ledger figures.
The American auto giants should not be looking over their
shoulders, the opposition is in front.
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Vantastic deals coming?
A new market area is emerging in Thailand, with dedicated
delivery vans starting to make their presence. Newest amongst
these will be the French twins, the Citroen Berlinga and the
Peugeot Partner due to appear this year. These will be
assembled by Yontrakit and they are talking sales of 4,000
units locally and 10,000 units for export to Asia and
Australia. With the forthcoming zero tariff movements between
Australia and Thailand, it is probably a very good move by
Yontrakit.
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Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked what car was the little
sister to the Zwickau P70 of 1955-59? The only clue was that
some lucky people have actually seen one moving under its own
power. The answer was of course the ‘Trabbie’, the
dreadful Trabant from East Germany, with its smoky two-stroke
engine, a development of the pre-war DKW Meisterklasse!
So to this week. Tatra was well known
pre-war with their rear engine cars, and influenced Mercedes
Benz to produce some rear engine variants as well. One of
these was the 130 H of 1934. This car also featured a
different type of chassis. What was it?
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be
the first correct answer to email automania@ pattayamail.com
Good luck!
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Natter Nosh and Noggin
The car (and bike) enthusiasts will be meeting again this
Monday night (9th) at Shenanigans Pub at 7 p.m. This is a
totally informal meeting of like minded souls which meets on
the second Monday of every month to discuss their pet motoring
(and motorcycling) loves and hates. It is free to join and I
suggest that you bring along magazines or photographs so that
the group can get involved in the discussion. Generally we
have something to eat while we are there and wash it down with
something amber, hence the name, Natter, Nosh and Noggin. Just
ask any of the lovely Shenanigans girls where Dr. Iain and the
group are and they will point us out and give you a push.
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