Despite the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) tightening the engine screw even further, engine failures due to old age are still not expected on the world’s Formula 1 circuits this season. To curb the performance of the engines and cut costs, the new regulations stipulate that an engine must last for two grand prix weekends. Compared to the previous season, this means a doubling of the mileage to approximately 1,500 kilometres. The engine may be replaced only in the case of damage during free practice or qualifying, and even then the driver is moved back 10 places on the starting grid, as well as being restricted to the replacement engine until the end of the following grand prix. Those drivers who do not finish a race, on the other hand, are permitted to start the next one using a new engine – no penalties whatsoever are applied.

The strategists at The BMW WilliamsF1 Team fear this could tempt some of the teams to race tactically: a driver with no chance of finishing the race in the points might deliberately not finish in order to gain the advantage of a new engine for the next race.

Finding out what race strategies the teams will implement in response to the new engine regulations will provide excitement beyond the beginning of the season. There is no doubt that treating the engine with as much care as possible will be in all the teams’ interests. This can be achieved in two ways, according to Sam Michael, The BMW WilliamsF1 Team Technical Director. One approach is to drive fewer laps; the other is to reduce the engine speed. At The BMW WilliamsF1 Team, the decision has already been made. “During free practice, while we test the tyres and work out the set-up, we will reduce the engine speed,” says Michael. “Anything else would be bad for the spectators which, in turn, would be bad for Formula 1.”

Although the engines are going to have to last twice as long, the engineers developing the P84/5 engine did not simply design all those parts that suffer high mechanical and thermal stresses with twice the strength. That would have resulted in a larger and heavier engine, and in a loss of engine speed and performance. Minimising these losses through new solutions was a highly complex task that demanded meticulously detailed work throughout the entire manufacturing process – from component design and construction, to material selection to manufacture, right up to testing and quality assurance.

“Our goal was to achieve reliability over twice the distance with the least possible loss of performance,” Dr. Theissen explains. “We want our engine to be the benchmark in Formula 1 in 2005 as well.”

Despite the extremely high engine speeds of up to 19,200rpm and power of over 900bhp, the Munich-built engine has proved the epitome of reliability over the past few years. In the 2003 season, for example, when it was not permitted to replace engines between qualifying and the race, The BMW WilliamsF1 Team suffered only one engine failure – and that in spite of a stress profile equivalent to having a long-distance runner perform a sprint just before the start of a marathon. Even in 2004, with the engine already having to last an entire grand prix weekend, there was only one engine failure in 36 races, while maximum engine speed remained almost identical.


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Did you know...

... that a Formula 1 engine consists of approximately 5,000 parts and that the piston speed at maximum engine speed equals 40 metres a second? Consequently, an accelerative force of up to 9000g can result, whereby the connecting rod has to withstand forces of nearly three tons. “Despite this enormous mechanical strain,” says Dr. Christoph Lauterwasser of the Allianz Centre for Technology (AZT), “the connecting rods have a filigree design. Using precise computer calculations, every unnecessary gram is eliminated.” For example, a titanium Formula 1 connecting rod weighs only 295 grams, while one made of steel for a standard production three-litre engine weighs 545 grams and must bear far fewer loads than Formula 1.