Marko Says Mercedes is Helping Ferrari

[cosworth151]

I thought about naming this thread either "Hemut Comes Unhinged" or "Red Bull Give You Paranoia."

Helmut Marko has accused Mercedes of actively helping Ferrari to close the gap with Mercedes in 2015. Really. I'm not kidding.

"It is difficult to prove, but I am sure that Mercedes helped Ferrari," he told the German magazine Sport Bild. "And we all know why."

I can't even imagine a reason why Mercedes would help their closest competitor to catch them. It doesn't even make sense.

http://autoweek.com/article/formula-one/red-bull-accuses-mercedes-helping-ferrari-formula-one

[Jericoke]

I would LOVE for the F1 teams and suppliers to realize that cooperation is the best way to go.  Rising tide lifts all boats etc.

I'm not suggesting that all the teams and suppliers agree on making everything the same, but that if one team holds a dominant secret (cough rbr flexwing cough), it's not good for the sport as a whole.

For Mercedes to (hypothetically) help Ferrari sort out their power unit, but not Renault isn't great, but in business Mercedes is in competition with Renault, and not so much Ferrari.  If Ferrari roadcars use Mercedes technology, I don't think the Daimler board of directors will be too upset about it.  If Mercedes R&D starts showing up in Renaults and Infinitis, then there will be a problem.

[Ian]

So Herr Marko, RBR's dominance over 4 seasons didn't damage F1 then. Here is an old English proverb for you. 'You can't have your cake and eat it'.   

[Scott]

I could see two British manufacturer's in cahoots, but really, do you think the Germans would really help the Italians (WW2 notwithstanding)?

[F1fanaticBD]

It may sound really weird, but this is very much plausible to be honest, though it sounds to more like a child's xry for not getting the toys.

Ferrari is saying they started the development way back in the early part of 2014 when they realized Mercedes had the upper hand in terms of performance & design. May question is if there is an engine developmental freeze how can they start the development that early.

Also Mercedes slowing engine development sound very odd, as because before Australia the tokens for engine development left unused, Mercedes had 7, while Renault had 12. So if someone stalled the development, most likely it was Renault, not Mercedes

[Scott]

I thought the tokens just indicated which bits of the engines they are allowed to change, not how long they can plan (R&D could start a year ahead if they had the regs in hand) and think about making those changes... 

[John S]

Ferrari is saying they started the development way back in the early part of 2014 when they realized Mercedes had the upper hand in terms of performance & design. May question is if there is an engine developmental freeze how can they start the development that early.

The engine makers are free to develop anything they wish, they just can't run it in a current F1 car without showing how they have used their tokens.

Suggestions have abounded about Ferrari using their own Fiorana track with some other car or chassis as a mule to increase their development of the engine.

[lkjohnson1950]

There was a Ferrari road car going around Fiorano with an odd exhaust note for a while. I don't think that would be against the rules. Ferrari announced they were considering an "Entry Level" model with a V6 turbo-hybrid power plant. As far as development goes, Ferrari obviously had more room for improvement than Mercedes.

[F1fanaticBD]

There was a Ferrari road car going around Fiorano with an odd exhaust note for a while. I don't think that would be against the rules. Ferrari announced they were considering an "Entry Level" model with a V6 turbo-hybrid power plant. As far as development goes, Ferrari obviously had more room for improvement than Mercedes.

Why can't Renault do the same? Had they been doing some testing times with an odd exhaust note in the Le Mans track, would that be too much to ask for?

[Jericoke]

There was a Ferrari road car going around Fiorano with an odd exhaust note for a while. I don't think that would be against the rules. Ferrari announced they were considering an "Entry Level" model with a V6 turbo-hybrid power plant. As far as development goes, Ferrari obviously had more room for improvement than Mercedes.

Why can't Renault do the same? Had they been doing some testing times with an odd exhaust note in the Le Mans track, would that be too much to ask for?

How many non F1 high performance cars could Renault be plausibly testing?

Ferrari could very easily manufacture a test car that would handle an F1 engine but otherwise look like a 'production' model to avoid FIA scrutiny