Why did Michael's engine fail in Japan?

[lightweight]

The F1 fans must remember Schumi's DNF in Suzuka due to engine failure. There was no official word from Ferrari, though concerning the reasons of the malfunction.

Although only Ferrari insiders know the exact causes of the failure, Grandprix.com offers an insight to the situation leading to the engine blow.

1. Critical point in the race after 2nd pit-stop: MS was pushing really hard in order to remain in front after his pit stop. The stop itself didn't help as there was no engine cooling available.

2. Engine was designed in the start of the year, so current development is pushing the engine to its limits. Moreover, engine development is even faster, as the engine design will be kept for next year. So, the engine is stressed to its design limits.

http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns17624.html

[Quiggs]

Sometimes stuff just breaks.

[Jack_Bauer]

Felipe Massa's engine in China failed in Friday practice and needed replacing, something to do with the valvetrain. Schumi was running the same spec engine in Japan so that was initially presumed to be where the failure must have occured. That seems to have proved not to be the case however...

From Autosport.com...

Originally Posted by Autosport.com

......The blown engine finally arrived back at Maranello on Wednesday morning, and the team spent the day examining it. It was badly mangled internally, but the initial conclusion was that it was not, after all, connected to the Chinese failure, even if valves were involved once again (as indeed they were back in Malaysia).

"We checked the engine and what we found was we had a failure in the upper part of a valve," Ferrari spokesman Luca Colajanni told autosport.com on Wednesday evening. "It's the first time we had it, and it's nothing to do with what happened to Felipe's engine. We're still doing more analysis to understand why there was this failure, but it was nothing to do with the other one. That was in the same area, but it was a completely different thing.

"It was not a part that had been recently introduced, so this is why it's strange. It happened in Suzuka, but it could have happened in Hockenheim. It's the kind of thing that can always happen. It's just a shame that it happened when it did."

Meanwhile, the V8 with which Massa finished second in Suzuka automatically becomes the officially homologated engine that forms the basis for Ferrari's spec for 2007 and beyond, and as such has been sealed by the FIA.

The news that the failures were not related is good in the sense that the team's initial conclusion that there was no need to worry about Michael in Japan was correct. But on the other hand, there have been two apparently unrelated expensive failures at this critical period of the championship, and there are still a lot of unknowns.

Both drivers get a new engine for Brazil (as does Alonso), and they will be of the same spec. They only have to do one race weekend, and that means there's a lot more flexibility in terms of the high-rev laps.

"All the overrevs that you'd use over two races, you use over one race," said Brawn in Japan. "There's no real difference. It's just the usage of it; because it only has to last one race, you can just use it harder."

Ferrari had hoped to go into Brazil with this capacity to run the engines hard for a large proportion of the race, and the team will certainly need to do that if they are to secure either title. But the Suzuka failure may force the team to revise that strategy and perhaps be a little more cautious than planned. And that could play into Renault's hands.

It seems as though it was a tried and trusted part that they had been running for a while with no issues that failed. As Quiggs says, sometimes things just break, freak occurences. Lord knows Schumi was due a freak failure after over 5 years of bulletproof race engines, most drivers have probably had at least half a dozen engine blowouts in that time. Fate just conspired against him I guess.

[kingofthering]

or it's because he didn't have VTEC!!!!!

[Kitdy]

I say it is some kind of crazzzzy conspiracy. No wait, that was Max and Bernie trying to make Michael WIN... I am at a loss then.

[Rockefella]

Originally Posted by kingofthering

or it's because he didn't have VTEC!!!!!

Actually, it's the opposite. MSchumacher was running the VTEC in Suzuka instead of a chipped 1.8T that nevar loses, explaining the 'kablamo'.

[Quiggs]

.....

[2ndclasscitizen]

[Daz27]

Max and Bernie ARE tryen to help Schumi win, and be the first WC (I mean world champion not water closet btw...) to tie in points with second. I wouldnt say that the Ferrari motor is even nearly the same as the one they started 06 with either...

[fpv_gtho]

They'd be foolish to design an engine with little scope for development.

I guess its no surprise with teams pushing 20K more than they ever have theres been so many valvetrain failures.

[ptclaus98]

Luck ran out?

[kingofthering]

Originally Posted by Rockefella

Actually, it's the opposite. MSchumacher was running the VTEC in Suzuka instead of a chipped 1.8T that nevar loses, explaining the 'kablamo'.

well, i guess he wasn't using the three stage i-VTEC

[h00t_h00t]

On the trip home an engine on his private jet failed and he was stuck in Japan for an extra night.

[Kitdy]

The gods of F1 are allowing Alonso his victory - even though he spoke out against his team (which really pissed me and the F1 gods off). Michael is in trobule. Unless Bernie and Max can find someway to DSQ Alonso next race and not make it looked rigged. I wouldn't put it past the Renault though for the car to fail.

[Kitdy]

I would also like to point out that today, October 17, is Kimi Raikonnen's 27th Birthday! Happy birthday Kimi!