Reliability ‘more important than engine or aero’

2014 F1 season

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Ferrari’s chassis technical director James Allison expects reliability to be the most important factor in deciding the outcome of this year’s championship.

Speaking after the launch of Ferrari’s F14 T Allison said he relished the challenge of developing an engine for the new formula: “2014 sees us for the first time in many years have free development of an engine from a clean sheet of paper.”

“And for sure that’s going to bring a level of variation of power between the various engine manufacturers that makes the engine a much more important competitive factor in 2014 than it has been in recent years.”

“But the rules on aerodynamics are also very new. The rate of development that we will have aerodynamically through the season will be very steep and the importance of aerodynamics to the championship is going to be at least as important as the differences in power levels between the various engine manufacturers.”

However Allison expects another factor to be even more critical: “This year reliability is going to be absolutely fundamental.”

Allison described the pleasure of “being able to start with a clean sheet of paper a completely new project, a complex and difficult project, and to be able to design from nothing the entire layout of a very difficult and complex car. That for an engineer is like Christmas every day.”

“However, saying that it’s a pleasure, we also have to remember that it’s been very, very difficult as well. And the difficulty doesn’t stop at the start of the season. We’ve got races ahead of us and that difficulty will continue through every race as we try to make sure that we keep improving the car through the year.”

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Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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11 comments on “Reliability ‘more important than engine or aero’”

  1. How can reliability be more important than engine when its the reliability of the engine that people are concerned about

    1. Its also the ERS and the turbo as well.

    2. He means that reliability will be a more deciding factor than engine or aero performance.

    3. Kind of makes me wonder why they went for such a small inlet area on the side pods, then… Surely cooling is more important to reliability than the aero gain by making them small????

  2. So who I believe then, Symmonds or Allison? Given that Allison works directly with an engine manufacturer, and the fact that Sam Michael also mentioned the importance of reliability, I’m assuming that it will indeed be a major problem for most teams.

  3. Much as I am looking forward to a development race even if it’s of very short duration, I can’t help thinking this emphasis on reliability is more about having an excuse ready if the car turns out to be slow, which, having just read Scarbs excellent analysis, I think this one may be.

    And what do we call this ugly schnozz, the platypus, or the pilot whale or some other wierd aquatic analogy ?

    1. I agree. Saying that reliabilty is more important than having a fast car is a bit like already admitting you’ve designed a slow car …

    2. there is this saying – it’s easier to make a fast car reliable then a reliable one fast.

  4. PS. Isn’t Red and BLACK the Marussia colour scheme ?

    1. Yeah, I thought that when I first saw it, especially the rear end decal work.

    2. it is, yeah.

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