Ferrari Not Worried About Using McLaren ECU

[davewilson]

Written by: Adam Cooper / RACER Magazine
 London, UK – 7/21/2006
Brawn says that Ferrari is not concerned about having to switch to the Microsoft MES standard ECU system in 2008.

The FIA revealed earlier this month that Ferrari’s longtime partner Magneti Marelli failed to win the bid, and all teams will have to use a system effectively developed from that currently used by McLaren.

It’s a case of win some/lose some for Ferrari, as the team will at least benefit from continuity with Bridgestone tires.

“I think the fact is that like the Bridgestone tires, whoever [used MES before] will have some experience with that system,” said Brawn. “If it had been the Marelli system we would have had the experience with that. It’s a McLaren a system, they’ll have experience with the McLaren system. That’s unavoidable.

“I think it’s still a preferential system than trying to introduce someone with no experience of F1, so whoever was going to get contract, somebody would have some experience of. But I don’t think it’s a competitive problem because the [FIA] is quite clear on the requirements, from what I understand.”

Brawn says he expects the new supplier to work fairly with all the teams, because the FIA will keep a close watch on events.

“There have been no discussions between the teams and the supplier, I think the contract is being drawn up or is about to be signed. Until the formalities are done the teams have no contact with the supplier, and in fact the contact will be through the FIA in order to make sure that there’s no confusion and the situation is managed properly.

“As I understand it the teams will make their requests for information through the FIA, and then the FIA will liase with Microsoft MES, and presumably collect all the requests together and organize the meetings and discussions that will happen. I believe the intention is that those communications will be open to all the teams, and the discussions will be open to all the teams, to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding.

“Obviously, Microsoft MES is based on a platform that’s running around now in F1, so we’ve got less concerns about having a system ready. I think the document was very specific about what was required, and it was generated with the FIA’s knowledge of all the individual teams’ requirements.

“We haven’t seen the full details yet, but I gather within the next two weeks we should be part of the discussions to understand what’s needed, because we need to start designing our components for 2008, and if they require the designs to change to suit the standard ECU, then we need to know soon.”

Brawn pointed out that it won’t be easy to impose a rev limit in 2007, when teams are still using their own systems.

“I think one of the interesting side issues is that there’s a limit proposed for 2007 in the Indianapolis Agreement. It’s not completely clear to us how that will be policed without a standard ECU.

“We all limit the revs in different ways and we all sample the revs in different ways, and we maybe have a slightly different understanding of the rev limit. Some people use very hard, aggressive rev limiters, and others use soft limiters where the engine approaches the limit gradually.”

Its The Last Watch I buy From Them.
Article:
http://www.speedtv.com/articles/auto/formulaone/29216/
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