Williams FW33

[timbo]

The cosworth is one of the weakest links on this car in terms of packaging.
It looks like an old perkins engine in the shot.

the renault engine would be an instant improvement next year.

Eh? But why? Actually, with engines so tightly regulated I don't think engine itself contributes to the packaging differently. Cooling requirements, fuel flow is obviously different.

[axle]

The engine is behind the covers!?!

[ESPImperium]

The engine is behind the covers!?!

Heat shielding covers, as the V8 get so hot that they would burn the carbon engine covers.

[jamsbong]

The cosworth engine is the worst. I think the only reason they were able to be in F1 is because of the rules that only allow new teams to use Cosworth engine. Lotus apparently switch to Renault very quickly. Now williams had to use the 9th engine for sticking with Cosworth.

I remember when Mark Webber was in Williams, he had retirements all the time. It was so humorous that my mates and I just bet on when will Webber retire from the race due to engine failure! haha... Non of us expects the Cosworth engine to last the race. And we were correct most of the time.

Perhaps the upcoming V6 era could change things.

[megz]

http://www.gpupdate.net/en/f1-news/2708 ... abu-dhabi/

Pastor Maldonado will take a ten-place grid penalty for next weekend’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. In India on Sunday, the Venezuelan retired from the race due to a gearbox failure which damaged his engine; he will now exceed the eight-engine-per-season limitation, meaning the penalty will be applied by FIA stewards.

“As Pastor will use a ninth engine in Abu Dhabi, due to damage incurred following the gearbox failure in India, he will incur a subsequent ten-place grid penalty,” explains Mark Gillan, Williams’ Chief Operations Engineer. “Rubens (Barrichello) will use a new eighth engine.”

I'm not surprised it damaged his engine - after the gearbox went kaput it sounded as though the engine free revved well beyond 20,000rpm which is odd given they're limited, what do people think happened here?

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFADUTrIbIk[/youtube]

[MIKEY_!]

I agree it did sound like it was well above the limiter. I believe the limiter does not physically stop the engine revving beyond a certain point it just cuts fuel flow or sparking to prevent it going any higher. If it hit the wrong gear or something like that is could have got well above the limiter.

[beelsebob]

I agree it did sound like it was well above the limiter. I believe the limiter does not physically stop the engine revving beyond a certain point it just cuts fuel flow or sparking to prevent it going any higher. If it hit the wrong gear or something like that is could have got well above the limiter.

I doubt it'll have been hitting the wrong gear, my pet guess would be that the driveshaft broke between the engine and the gearbox, and that from then on, any amount of fuel would get the engine spinning at a rediculous rate.

[ringo]

to be fair, cosworth is just as reliable as the other engines.
Ferrari had more engine failures than cosworth this year.

The problem with cosworth is that it can't use the exhaust blowing like the other teams. If you notice it's very quiet going into the corners compared to renault or ferrari.
The engine also seems to have less compact exhaust routing possibilities.

Can bash them for many things but reliability is not their weak point.

[Tyler]

Agreed, I don't think the Cosworth is that bad, just as Ringo says they're not up to speed (excuse the pun) with the engine blowing.
With EBD's banned for next year, I'm sure we'll see Cosworth powered cars being more competitive.
I wonder why Cosworth haven't developed their engine blowing as well as the other engine manufacturers.
I remember reading an article in which Williams and Cosworth were assessing whether it was worth going down that route, in terms of the costs involved.
I wonder if it was because of the costs to both parties or just Cosworth?

[Reca]

Engine's rpm from noise:



As you see the failure happened in the middle of upshift, could be related to the synchronization of gears selection/de-selection, maybe something went wrong in electronics or hydraulics causing two gears to be engaged at same time, with predictable results.

Then the engine, as already mentioned, suddenly missing resistance from drivetrain freely revved to almost 20k before electronics/driver could react.

But I like to think this was actually caused by the engine that, annoyed of being castrated at 18k limit, wanted to experience at least once the kind of rpm its brother in 2006 was routinely revving at...

[timbo]

That just reminded how fabulous engines sounded before the rev-limits...

[aleks_ader]

That just reminded how fabulous engines sounded before the rev-limits...

Yeah! Nice old times!

[ESPImperium]

That just reminded how fabulous engines sounded before the rev-limits...

Yeah! Nice old times!

As the engines are lasting now, i personally think that we should go back to 19,000rpm as per 2007/2008 rules were. I also think this would also put relyability back into focus and especially in the latter half of the year put engines into focus much more. And with the V6s coming into F1 in 2014, give us just 2 more years of yelling V8 power would be really welcome i think.

[cossie]

Engines are the last thing Williams should worry about, lately they have cars that are dogs, until they are able to make a competitive chassis , they are switching engines every 2-3 years in search of the magic bullet

[bill shoe]

Engine's rpm from noise:

Nice data, thanks. Did you make it?