Ferrari Sabotaged by McLaren ECU?

Ferrari / Ferrari F2008

Like Windows talking to Apple OS

By Thami Masemola
March 18, 2008 12:03 AM
Filed Under: European, F1

Ferrari’s legendary bullet-proof cars appear to have exited stage left along with former Maranello golden boy Michael Schumacher. How else do you explain the events of Melbourne 2008? Paddock chitty chat has a different spin on things that may have caused Kimi Raikonnen a place in the podium.

Word is that F1’s official ECU wasn’t speaking the same language as Ferrari’s software on race weekend, notwithstanding the fact that Ferrari set the pace at first practice on Friday. The 2008 ECU is manufactured by McLaren Electronic Systems, a division of the McLaren Group. Kimi’s car ran hopelessly out of breath after this pace, relegating him to a final 6th spot during second practice. In qualifying he got ruled out of the remaining qualifying sessions even though he set the second fastest time in the first session, after failing to return his car to the pit-lane post a fuel pump problem.

“The issue was caused because of two conflicting procedures,” a Ferrari spokesman said to GPWeek.
“This kind of thing can happen when you are working with one procedure that you do not know so well. Now we know that there is a conflict we can make sure it does not happen again. If you have a Macintosh and you use Windows software it can get stuck and you don’t know why. “When that happens you reset your computer.”

Had Ferrari not been running the same ECU with the very same software all along with no apparent issues?

Source: GPWeek via Paddocktalk

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Hamilton Dominates Eventful Start to the F1 Season Down Under (8 comments

Comments

joelynn

March 18, 2008 12:50 AM

Bet Ferrari will try and claim this was McLaren cheating to steal another championship.... McLaren were the rightful winners last year spies or not.

Pentium

March 18, 2008 2:14 AM

yeah, I like McLaren...but what happened in 2007 is not rightful! to have spies and all your team members talking about Ferrari's secrets! man they even know the pit strategy in a race..come on!

Joe_Limon

March 18, 2008 1:04 AM

If Ferrari tries to blame Mclaren, to me Ferrari's name will be in the gutter. All they would be doing is blame shifting, there engineers should have realized this problem.

l3fty

March 18, 2008 1:46 AM

Bad analogy. I agree the engineers should have been on top of this. Race weekend isn't the time to realize there's a bug in your system.

un_peacekeeper

March 18, 2008 2:58 AM

Well, that bug is pretty specific. All the Ferrari engines failed?

122

March 18, 2008 12:12 PM

Nope only 3 out of the 6 failed on race day :p The other 3 cars using ferrari engines were all in an accidnet/incident.

unknown

March 18, 2008 3:18 AM

ferrari isn't the same as they used to be. a bunch of whiners now

Wunderkind

March 18, 2008 3:39 AM

I'm not surprised by these baseless accusations made against McLaren/Microsoft. But you only need to look at all the other teams and see none have experienced any problems with their engine electronics. Ferrari's name is already in the gutter after what happened last year and this further proves that they are a bunch of sore losers. Ferrari, please just get on with the job and stop whining!

some_american

March 18, 2008 4:46 AM

Haha, I use a Mac and I like Ferrari more, go figure. (i.e. that means i hate Microsoft with a passion and McLaren used to be on my good list when they had Kimi, but after last season and Kimi's good judgement to leave, I could care less for McLaren) So basically, I'm siding w/ whatever Ferrari decides to say on this one.

dmanero

March 18, 2008 5:30 AM

once again Ferrari tries to blame someone else for their loss, instead of looking within their own garage.

wisp

March 18, 2008 8:38 AM

How were Mclaren the rightful winners last year? Even if you lift off the disqualification from the constructors, there numbers wioll still fall short of Ferraris. Mclaren cheated and that's cheap.

eas722

March 18, 2008 8:03 PM

Hey ferrari fan, mclaren had 109+109 points in constructors (if it wasnt sabotaged by ferrari international assistance, thats another issue. Ferrari had 110+94. Obviously Macca was ahead by 14 points.. Go learn either the real season results or maths before trying to blame McLaren..

wisp

March 18, 2008 8:44 AM

This bashing craze on Ferrari is so medieval. The biggest faulters in this issue is the FIA. It's not Ferrari who issued warnings b4 the first race but so did BMW, Renault and even Red bull. All of them were concerned that the cheats were awarded an ECU unit to manufacture and manage at the same time. Man! it's like having a bUrgler installing an alarm system in your house, he manages it and goes back home with the oin number in his pocket. B4 you know it you'll be swiped clean. So itis not surprising that Ferrari find it odd that all their engines blew up. Who makes better engines anyway Merc or Ferrari?

siko666

March 18, 2008 10:44 AM

How can WCF print such garbage! What's happening to this site!

Wunderkind

March 18, 2008 10:54 AM

Ferrari should just do their talking on the racetrack. Stop pointing fingers at others. All other teams had to live with the new McLaren/Microsoft engine ECUs. I think Raikkonen's engine failure was partly due to his two off-track excursions that damaged the exhaust manifold on one side of the engine. Everyone, Ferrari fans included, should have faith in the FIA and Microsoft (if not McLaren) to produce equal ECUs. Even the Ferrari spokesman blamed it on the new programming and not foul play. Let's not devalue the F1 championship further.

Roger

March 18, 2008 12:00 PM

Ferrari are SO lame, I cannot see why everyone else doesnt hate them!

Its THEIR responsibility to make sure the car fits the ECU as what ALL the other teams have done.

phobos

March 18, 2008 2:27 PM

let us wait for malaysia...mean while shut the f**k up

JohnnyG

March 18, 2008 3:54 PM

Does anyone see anything wrong with McClaren devoloping these ECU's. It's almost a conflict of interest since they have their own F1 Team. The FIA should have used an outside company and not one that has such a big role in F1l; especially after the spying probe. Ferrari will figure out the problem and make their cars work with it. I still think there is something wrong about McClaren's stake in the ECU's.

AfterDawn

March 18, 2008 7:45 PM

Time to do something that's oft missing on F1 comment blogs: talk based on facts not feelings for teams/drivers.

1) If there's anything that let Ferrari down in Melbourne, it was the drivers. An absolute crap race from them. Quoting a Mr. Lauda, 'Everything that they could do wrong, they did wrong.' So no use blaming ECUs if your drivers can't drive. I have utmost respect for Raikkonen. I think come dusk of his career, some of his best races will have been at McLaren storming from the back of the grid to challenge for the win but his Sunday was reckless. While I'll agree Massa once in a while shows some form of racing aptitude, he long ago consigned himself to the role of second/supporting driver.

2)It's been months since the 07 season ended and Ferrari knew F1 would switch over to a standard ECU. They had all winter to make the ECU compatible. Other teams did it and if Ferrari failed, no one can carry responsibility but themselves. If they didn't trust the MES/Microsoft effort, I'm sure they had time to express their reservations along with other teams that would have felt the same way.

3)I'm not sure if any software changes will be part of the engine homologation process but if they are then they have had time since Sunday to get their engineers working on the problem until the homologation deadline.

I'll point out I'm a die-hard McLaren fan but if anything I've spoken is not clearly reasonable or logical, point that out. Furthermore, it's ridiculous not to suppose a team won't have a massive cock-up every now and then. Ferrari is a great team; I'd lose respect for them if they didn't recover from Sunday's result. And if Massa and Kimi found driving without TC hard, there will be many less green tracks than Melbourne. Sunday's was a thrilling race but it's a long season yet. There's all the time to recover and go racing 17 more times. In the meantime, Sepang awaits.

norther

March 18, 2008 9:59 PM

only 3 out of 6? well that's a 50-50 chance, if mclaren is, or is not guilty. well.."guilty". whatever....good job McLaren, if they sabotaged it. try blowing up their engines next time.

SDman

March 19, 2008 3:37 AM

ECU or not.. McLaren has the better car, better engine, better drivers (not to mention their cars are the most gorgeous on the grid) than any other team this year and the last..

wisp

March 19, 2008 7:41 AM

From the look of things we have alot of Mclaren fans ranting their win like the championship has already been won. Last year is a done deal. It was not Ferrari that stole info and denied like never before to have stolen it. That team is an embarrssament to Formula 1 and can only be likened to teams that have been caught cheating (doping) in the Tour de France. Now you ask me what levels of noise would have been made had Ferrari been caught spying - it would be huge. Imagine the maddness it would have created if Ferrai were to supply the ECU's. It would have blatantly been called cheating but that now it's Mclaren it is not seen as cheating. Take a realistic look at the championship since 1999 and you'll see the team that has always been up there. Face it, Mclaren are a bunch of grumpy wet old whiners that cheat to live another day. If and when Ferrari are caught cheating, then they will deserve the hate that's leveled at them by a bunch of petty losers who still dwell on last years championship lose. You lost it yourselves, even with stolen data. How useless.

wisp

March 19, 2008 8:02 AM

eas722 whatever, Here's a lesson in maths. next you shoot your mouth off check your facts.

Kimis 110 + Massas 94 = 204. Alonsos 109 + Lewis 109 = 218. Less 14 points docked at Hungarian Grand Prix = 204. less a further 204 points docked for 'theft' of data from rival team = 0 points. Conclusion: Toro Rosso outscored the Britsih team. Result: Cheats never cross.

zeus2

March 20, 2008 7:46 PM

eas722 = OWNED, nice one Wisp (was dyin to mention that but i guess you beat me to it). well said AfterDawn, if you don't respect your rival then theres no glory in winning. And to the rest of you mclaren fans, try relaxing a little, maybe then you'd enjoy the racing a little more than reading the tabloids.

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