MARKO: WE DID OUR BIT NOW ITS MERCEDES’S TURN

 17 November, 2019

Ferrari’s rivals in Brazil held fire on lodging an official protest against the Maranello team’s engine in the wake of two technical directives already issued to the teams.

Both Mercedes and Red Bull-Honda appear to be teaming up against Ferrari, while speculation that a protest was imminent died down as qualifying took place at Interlagos.

“We did our part,” Helmut Marko told reporters in Brazil, after Red Bull prompted the first technical directive in Austin. “Now it’s Mercedes’ turn. They know more about it than we do.”

Auto Motor und Sport quoted an insider as saying at Interlagos: “If Ferrari continues in the same way, they certainly have a lot of courage.”

But on Saturday, Ferrari’s power advantage of Friday actually faded, and it was Max Verstappen scoring pole.

“We got beaten fair and square,” said Sebastian Vettel. “It was a bit of a surprise. Not to see them [Red Bull-Honda] that quick but to see them that quick on the straights. So, a little bit suspicious.”

Vettel may have been joking with his final jibe, but heads were being scratched as to why Honda is suddenly so strong.

One theory is that Honda’s efficiency on the hybrid side means it is less affected by the high altitude in Sao Paulo.

“We’ve been down on power,” Mercedes’ world champion Lewis Hamilton said after qualifying behind the Red Bull as well as Vettel’s Ferrari.

“It’s obviously great for the sport that we have another manufacturer starting to produce good engines, but I don’t fully understand it.”

James Allison, who in Toto Wolff’s absence is the acting team boss in Brazil, explained: “We would have to conclude that Honda has advantages on the electrical side.”

Valtteri Bottas agrees: “Red Bull has a good car for the high altitude circuits.”

As for the risk of a protest against what is being described in the paddock as Ferrari’s engine “tricks”, boss Mattia Binotto said the team has changed nothing since the FIA issued its technical directives.

Red Bull’s Marko told Auto Bild: “We did not ask the FIA about Ferrari specifically. We just want to be sure that we have no disadvantages for 2020. But suddenly, Ferrari does not have such a big edge in top speed. It’s strange.”

FIA explains plans to clamp down on oil burning in F1

The FIA is confident new regulations this year will be successful in catching teams that attempt to burn oil in the engine's combustion chamber to gain a power advantage.




Oil burning became a sensitive issue last year amid concerns some engine manufacturers were circumventing F1's tight fuel flow limitations by using oil as additional burnable fuel.




Under the regulations, F1 engines are limited to a fuel flow rate of just 100kg/hour in an attempt to force manufacturers to find extra power through efficiency gains rather than burning more fuel. But if oil can be introduced into the combustion chamber, it too can be burned to offer a small power boost above and beyond the limited flow of fuel.




It is thought this extra power boost can be particularly beneficial in qualifying, when fractions of a second can make the difference between pole position and the second row of the grid.


A technical directive was introduced at the Italian Grand Prix last year to limit oil consumption from 1.2 litres per 100km to 0.9 litres per 100km, and ahead of this year the rules have been tightened again to limit consumption to just 0.6 litres per 100km.

Charlie Whiting, the head of the FIA's technical apartment, said a number of extra measures had also been introduced to prevent teams burning oil in the combustion chamber on purpose.

"We've closed down all the things that they were able to do last year via mainly oil spec, because not only was oil being burnt a little, but they were putting things in the oil to aid combustion," Whiting said ahead of the new season. "There was no real oil spec last year, now there is. Now they have to approve oils. They can only use approved oils. So they give us a sample, just like they do with fuel, and that has to be approved as the only oil they can use.

"We've also tightened up the engine rules in Article 5 of the technical regulations, and we've also routed the breather that can no longer go back into the air intake which was the biggest issue. It has to go out the back like virtually every other racing car in the world. And we've told them they can't use more than 0.6 litres per 100 km. All those things combined I think will do the job."

However, one concern raised by Red Bull team boss Christian Horner is that the new oil consumption limits are not tight enough to detect the burning of oil for a single flying lap. However, Whiting believes detailed checks and new oil sensors will allow the FIA to keep tabs on whether oil is being used as fuel.

"I think the loophole that you're talking about is the difficulty of checking how much oil has actually been used during qualifying. You've got a small amount of laps, so if you're looking at a percentage you've got to try and detect smaller quantities that have been used. That's a challenge.

"We've made them all fit homologated oil sensors in their main oil tanks, but they've got auxiliary oil tanks as well, so we've got to be able to check those too. It's just a matter of detailed checking just to make sure that they are respecting the 0.6 even over short distances.

"It's relatively simple over a race distance, but I think the sort of things that Christian was saying for example, we know that Renault very, very low oil consumption. Others don't. Still well within the 0.6, but they fear that we won't be able to police it because of the small sample. But we're confident that we can."