Ferrari makes engine changes

Ferrari to make changes to the engine in the F10 following early season problems

Ferrari is to run with revised engines fitted to its F10 during the Spanish Grand Prix this weekend at Catalunya.

The team has suffered a number of issues so far this season, with Fernando Alonso suffering two failures during the opening four rounds of the year.

The Sauber team has also been beset by engine issues during the fly-away events in Bahrain, Australia, Malaysia and China which led to Ferrari making a request to the FIA to make changes to its engine on reliability grounds.

With the FIA having approved the changes, Ferrari will now run a revised engine for the opening race of the European season, although Pedro de la Rosa has doubted whether or not the changes will be ready in time for Sauber to make the most of them for the fifth round of the campaign.

“An element of the F10 package that has undergone close scrutiny in recent weeks is the engine,” a statement from Ferrari read. “A lot of work was carried out on the test bench, completing several long runs and this work produced some solutions which it is felt will solve the reliability problems experienced in Bahrain and Malaysia. The team therefore requested and received the authorisation of the FIA to make some changes within the framework of the current engine regulations and these modifications will be fitted to the engines to be used in Spain.

“While since China, everyone in the Gestione Sportiva has been working hard as always on their various areas of activity, it is fair to say that over the past weeks, the staff in the engine department really produced a major effort, working night and day to analyse, evaluate and solve issues that have affected engine performance in past races.”

As well as the revised engine, Ferrari will fit its own version of the F-Duct to the cars of Alonso and team-mate Felipe Massa during free practice on Friday, when a decision will then be taken over whether or not to use the system during qualifying and in the race itself.

The system was trialed by test driver Giancarlo Fisichella during straight-line aerodynamic testing in Italy last weekend.

Source: Crash.net