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After Aldo
Costa, Ross Brawn and Rory Byrne came Paolo Martinelli,
Formula 1 Engine Director, and Gilles Simon, head of
planning and engine development, to face the journalists
during the press conference to launch the new 248 F1.
"It is a totally new project", began Martinelli. "It is a
return to the past, as the name of the car demonstrates. We
started working on this engine midway through 2004 and then
tested it on the bench. Last August it made its first
outing, at Fiorano, and in the autumn of 2005 we completed
the V8. Now we are close to the final version. Obviously, in
the course of the season we will have to cope with a very
steep learning curve. Gilles Simon's success in development
was underlined: "the calculations were made long ago and
even if the regulation changes were related to us rather
late in the day, fundamental modifications such as the
selection of the centre of gravity had already been made.
"The rules outline global constraints but do allow a lot of
space for projectual experimentation", continued Martinelli.
"The 90° angle was our choice as was settling on the minimum
weight for the non-moving parts. The real challenge,
however, was lightening the weight of the moving
components". "For the first time in ten years a drop in
performance was recorded and this was fundamental. The
change in power meant some greater investment, but,in the
long run, it will be more economical. The overall output of
the engine remains unchanged and so some factors were the
same as on the V10." Martinelli also revealed that there had
been some dialogue between the engineers who work on
road-going cars and those who concentrate on racing models.
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