‘Some races will be flat out’ – Fry

2014 F1 season

Posted on

| Written by

Ferrari director of engineering Pat Fry says the new restrictions on fuel use in Formula One won’t mean drivers have to back off to save fuel at every race.

“Race strategy-wise there will be some races where we run flat-out with no restrictions, such as Monaco,” Fry explained, “there’ll be others where there’ll be a reasonably significant amount of fuel saving to be had.”

Fry pointed out the teams have a great degree of flexibility when it comes to adjusting their car’s fuel saving and performance.

“I suppose we go to Melbourne, we’ve got either the best or the worst of both worlds. It’s a high fuel consumption circuit and I’m sure we’ve got to get use to learning the strategies: the basic strategies for saving fuel, also strategically where do you want to go quick, where do you want to go slow? Because you can change the pace of your car by plus or minus one second depending on what fuel or energy you want to use on any particular lap.”

“So studying a race and trying to predict what the other people are doing becomes a step more complicated than it has been, certainly in the recent past.

Fry described the scope of change to the rules as being even greater than when turbocharged engines were last banned at the end of 1988.

“I’ve been around long enough that I did see the end of the turbo era and moving into normally aspirated engines. Although that was a reasonable change it was nothing compared to the power unit regulation changes that we have for this year.

“I think certainly on the power unit it’s the biggest change we’ve ever had certainly in recent history, or my recent history. The aero rules, yes they’re a reasonable change, but it’s not as dramatic I would say. You combine the two, there’s lots of interest and exciting challenges for all of us there, both on the chassis side, the aero side, there’s challenges on getting the car to the weight limit as well as optimising the power unit.”

2014 F1 season


Browse all 2014 F1 season articles

Image © Ferrari/Ercole Colombo

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

23 comments on “‘Some races will be flat out’ – Fry”

  1. Dose this make any sense?

    there’ll be others where there’ll be Ferrari’s a reasonably significant amount of fuel saving to be had.”

    I am convinced it will be less drastic than tyre saving last season though, so I am not too bothered and looking forward to the season ahead!

    1. Same here. They will be going flat-out. Just maybe lapping slower. But still flat out.

    2. I noticed it too, and I don’t think it does, must be some sort of mistake.

      It’s always interesting to hear what the technicians and engineers have to say, as they’re the ones who know what the reality will be, or the ones who can more accurately predict what the racing will be like. And in this case I think there is no reason to be too pessimistic about the racing in 2014.

    3. @vettel1

      Dose this make any sense?

      I know the dose of fuel in cars is something that is being talked about, but…:D

      1. The irony in that is fabulous, well done for pointing that out @wsrgo ;)

    4. Just a type, kind of like when you forget oranges to take out a word you typed before you press submit. That’s what it looks like to me anyway.

    5. same here – the problem with the tires as strategy gimmick was that once they were shot it became predictable.
      But they can choose the laps they wanna manage the fuel which should make for way less predictability and different race strategies hence more excitement for us.

    6. They’ll go flat out alright. Right up until turn one of lap one when the tires start to fall off the cliff.

  2. I can understand why Monaco will be flat out, it’s only 260 km long. However all the others are of reasonably equal size (305-310 km), so I don’t see how there’ll be much difference of one from the other. So, ‘some’ races, as Fry says, might be just one.

    1. @wsrgo It’s not just about the distance, here’s a handy guide to fuel consumption, good idea to bookmark it!
      https://www.racefans.net/2014/01/15/new-fuel-limit-2014-toughest-f1-rule/

      1. Ah thanks for that, @mantresx ..

  3. I doubt it.

    F1 race engineers have forgotten how to run flat out. They always need to manage or meddle with something, or just get their voice on TV.

  4. I am not reassured yet. Monaco is a shorter distance (and even there they won’t go flat out because they will take fuel out of the car and manage the tyres…), but for the other races I still anticipate a significant amount of fuel saving.

  5. As far as I am concerned a race means “flat out” competition, managing the pace is only OK for the leader, all others should be going “flat out” in order to pass the car(s) ahead of them otherwise the competition becomes a reliability trial or an economy run, neither of which have retained their popularity over the last 50 years.
    The thought of only some races being flat out does not reassure me, the technicians working on the ERS units better pull their fingers out and find more energy to compensate for the lost fuel or the designers will have to find low drag solutions if F1 is to retain my interest.

    1. the competition becomes a reliability trial or an economy run, neither of which have retained their popularity over the last 50 years.

      The consistent 50+ grids every year at Le Mans beg to differ :-P

      1. @raceprouk, The LeMans 24 hr.race, has an element of reliability but is for the leading teams a 24hr. sprint, when I talk about reliability trials I am talking about events like the old Ampol Around Australia trial.

  6. petebaldwin (@)
    25th January 2014, 22:17

    I have no issues with the engines being turned down. If they have to coast into turns etc then it becomes a problem but as long as the drivers are going 100%, I’m not too bothered what the engines are doing.

    It will add a bit of excitement perhaps as you won’t ever be sure if someone has more fuel left and might suddenly start pumping in laps. Also, if someone is following someone and turns their engine up, you’ll have to do the same to keep track position and that could completely throw your strategy out. It’d be nice if we could see this displayed on TV so we could all be involved but sadly, it’ll be something we can only guess at.

  7. I wrote a comment on “the racers edge” explaining how the fuel restriction values could have been more aggressive. Simply put a 30% smaller engine revving 13% less with the aid of direct injection and Turbo and recovery systems grants them better fuel economy than the reduction of only 30% of the fuel, the extra fuel will be used to make up for the lower revvs of the reduced capacity engines by splashing the turbo with fuel which should help to keep the turbo alive.

    1. I don’t think they’ll spin up the turbo by burning fuel through the exhaust. The have an ERS for that. Some say they might even go full electric thru slow corners

    2. The problem with antilag (the concept you were talking about) greatly shortens the life of an engine. Combined with engines already having ERS, the fact teams have fewer new engines to use this year, and the fact the regulations might not even permit it, and I can see why no team is using antilag.

  8. That’s not the only thing that’s flat out. ;)

Comments are closed.