Cosworth’s Engineering Debrief: Turkey

Setting the Scene
Cosworth’s Circuit Tracker for the Turkish Grand Prix highlighted Istanbul Park as one of the biggest all-round tests on engines for the entire season, putting the unit through a complete workout with a varied mix of high, medium and low-speed sections.

While the multi-apex turn 8 remains the greatest challenge for drivers, the range of corner types around Istanbul Park, coupled with the back straight, turn 11 and inclusion of KERS and DRS solutions, places a great emphasis on correct gear ratio selection.

Race Weekend Engineering Notes
AT&T Williams only narrowly missed out on making Q3 after an encouraging performance by Rubens Barrichello which was set without some of the team’s latest specification aerodynamic parts. Pastor Maldonado also made it through to Q2 in spite of running without KERS. The team’s improved performance did not translate into the hoped-for points finish, but the FW33 continues to show signs of pace, as demonstrated by Barrichello’s spirited first race stint.

In a race with impressive reliability, all five Cosworth-powered cars that started the race made it to the checkered flag with no engine problems.

Mark Gallagher – Cosworth General Manager F1 Business Unit
"From a Cosworth perspective this was a relatively straightforward weekend although I think we share our teams’ frustrations with the overall results as we know that AT&T Williams, Marussia Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing Team all have ambitions to achieve better finishes and ultimately to be scoring World Championship points. It was encouraging to see the Williams-Cosworth FW33 challenging hard for a Q3 slot and narrowly miss that by 0.024s. Reliability is of course key, allowing our teams to focus their efforts on overall performance, including optimizing the proven qualities of our engines."

From the Engineers Room
After four events, the 2011 Formula One World season is in full swing with teams afforded a variety of options when it comes to engine usage management. It is one of the key roles for Cosworth's on-track engineers and requires careful attention to detail to ensure each of the drivers’ eight engine lives are correctly managed throughout the season. Engine usage has become a fundamental part of any team’s approach to a race weekend, so the role Cosworth plays with AT&T Williams, Marussia Virgin Racing and Hispania Racing is as strategic as it is technical.

Gerry Hughes – Cosworth Formula One Track Support Manager
"With only eight engines per chassis/driver combination per season, teams spend a significant amount of time simulating engine usage at all of the circuits in order to define their own team specific engine usage plan based on a number of engine performance metrics. One of the functions that I perform on a continual basis is to discuss engine usage with the teams in order that this is fully optimized throughout the season, especially as this is wholly dependant on the engine mileage accrued in each of the sessions and races and, as such, is a very fluid and iterative process."