F1 helps Ferrari to go green

WHEN Ferrari needs to meet a technical challenge like those presented by the environmental age, it needs to look no further than the famed race team located at the back of the company’s famous Maranello production factory.

One of the long-term projects currently being assessed involves Kinetic Energy Recovery Systems (called KERS), which Ferrari is developing for F1 under new regulations that apply from 2009.

In the F1 application, KERS involves capturing the energy produced from braking, for example, and feeding it, when required, to one or more electric motors built into the drivetrain to allow a burst of extra performance for overtaking.

KERS technology is also used on hybrid road cars such as the Toyota Prius (in which it is called regenerative braking), where it is used to help keep the main battery charged.

Energy recovery is linked with hybrids, but Ferrari will not produce a hybrid car as we know it – simply one that uses electric motors that can utilise energy which would otherwise go to waste, improving performance and efficiency.

Ferrari road car technical director Roberto Fedeli (left) said that Ferrari is currently building a road-going 599-based test car that will be fitted with the same KERS components being developed for use in Kimi Raikkonen’s 2009 F1 car.

“This is not for production, but is only a concept study to better understand what we can achieve with this technology,” said Mr Fedeli.

“For Formula One, this kind of technology will give you something like 50 horsepower for overtaking, but for the road cars the electric engines are very important for approaching the (European Commission) regulations in a very good way.

“If you are driving in the regulation (combined) cycle, you have a very high gain from this kind of technology, but if you drive the car outside the cycle the gains that you can have are not so high.

“Our clients drive the car in the city for only a very small time – it’s not so important – but, from a practical point of view, we have to meet the regulations and... perhaps in the future, when the technology is ready, it may be a good solution.

“We are also thinking about more applicable solutions like the supercharger and so on. So our innovation basket of projects has more than one solution and we are thinking about the approach to the project but also with a more physical approach – not prototypes, because that suggests you will serialise the cars, but with ‘demo’ cars.” While acknowledging the need to meet environmental standards, Ferrari underlines the importance of maintaining all the sporty and performance characteristics that have made the Prancing Horse such an iconic brand, and of using the technology transfer from the world’s oldest, most famous and most successful F1 team.

As well as helping to meet targets such as the 2012 Euro emissions standards, Ferrari’s technology transfer has produced big gains in performance.

For example, the F430 Scuderia launched last year has 150 horsepower less than the mighty Enzo from only five years earlier, yet it produces the same lap time around Ferrari’s superb Fiorano test track located next to the race team at Maranello.

“Technology is still fundamental to Ferrari, as well as the technology transfer from Formula One to the GT cars – that’s what really makes Ferrari cars different,” Ferrari press office chief Davide Kluzer told GoAuto.

“Formula One is not just a marketing tool, but the best resource of technical innovation. Ferrari was the first to introduce a Formula One gearbox into a road car, we introduced the electronic differential in the F430, we learn lessons for aerodynamic efficiency, we develop lightweight materials and now you see carbon-ceramic brakes standard on all our cars.

“In the future, it will help us develop systems to reduce consumption, so we will continue to exploit Formula One ... and I think we have the capability, knowledge and the passion to face new challenges.

“What makes Ferrari different is that we face challenges every weekend with Formula One and other championships. Racing and challenges and technology are part of our DNA. Without challenges, this company would not survive.”

Read more:

Ferrari to stay red, but think green