With all the talk of engine parity, Renault, Red Bull and the lack of shove, there is one success story in F1 this year regarding lumps…Cosworth. Overall, the reliability and performance has been good by my estimation but that’s not the opinion that matters, this is:
Cosworth F1 chief Mark Gallagher:
“I believe we’ve done a sensational job in providing a third of the grid with competitive, efficient and reliable engines this season,†Gallagher said. “To me, reliability is a central pillar of any racing programme, particularly considering the eight-engine-per-driver rule.
“Unfortunately, good reliability is a non-story and engines only tend to get noticed when there are clouds of smoke and pistons on the track, so I’m pleased to say that we haven’t suffered any of the catastrophic failures that have been seen elsewhere.â€
The challenge of creating a F1 engine has to be daunting and yet Cosworth have proven they took reliability very seriously. With engine freezes, in-season testing bans and some seriously stiff competition; Cosworth is proud of their achievement thus far:
“Early in the season, we did see some issues with power degradation in the third race weekend, but we immediately began to address this issue, and with all the other work that has been done to optimise the performance of the engine we’re very satisfied with how things have gone.
“Considering our rivals have had a three-year head-start, actually it has been remarkable.”
The four Cosworth customers in F! have raced 58,000km without an engine failure and that’s praiseworthy to be sure. The big question I have is the overall performance. As a new supplier in F1 and Renault suggesting that the engine freeze has locked in inferior performance, can Cosworth ride the coattails of Renault for an engine improvement to be on par with Mercedes and Ferrari?
