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McLaren, Red Bull and Ferrari call for unfreezing F1 engines

Formula One is a hugely expensive sport. Not only do you have enormous salaries and logistical expenses, as you would in any other sport, but each team also spends huge sums developing their own chassis from the ground up – and so too do the participating automakers in developing the engines. One of the ways the series organizers mitigate those costs is by freezing development. So once the new crop of V6 turbo hybrid powertrains were developed, that was it. But now three of the of the sport's leading teams are calling on the FIA to unfreeze engine development. Their reason? Unfair advantage. There's little question that Mercedes did the best job of developing its "power unit" to meet the new regulations that took effect at the beginning of this past season. That's how the Mercedes team won all but three of the grands prix this season and finished with at least one car on the podium at every single race. It's also a big part of how the teams that bought their engines from Mercedes this season managed to consistently outperform the other non-works-supported teams. That clear advantage is why Red Bull, Ferrari and now McLaren are calling for engine development to be unfrozen. Their argument is that, under the current locked-down status quo, their engine suppliers (Renault, Ferrari and Honda, respectively) cannot possibly catch up. So unless the FIA and Formula One Management want the next few seasons to be the kind of absolute blow-outs that this past season was, these leading teams argue, the powers that be are going to have to make some changes. For its part, Mercedes naturally counters that unfreezing engine development would send costs spiraling out of control. But then of course it stands to lose the most by re-opening engine development. If those three teams, however, closely intertwined as they are with the three other engine suppliers participating in next year's championship, manage to solicit enough support from the other customer teams and bring the matter to a vote, Mercedes may very well find itself out-numbered. News Source: ESPNImage Credit: Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Motorsports Ferrari McLaren Mercedes-Benz F1 engine

Ferrari still finalizing LaFerrari hardware? [w/videos]

McLaren, Ferrari and Lamborghini helped make this year's Geneva Motor Show one of the most exciting in recent memory, but the LaFerrari might be a little further away from production than its McLaren P1 hypercar rival. According to GTSprit.com, it sounds like Ferrari is still trying to hammer out the the car's details to ensure the lucky 499 souls laying down $1.5 million aren't left in the dust by a brightly colored McLaren.
While it's not clear what sort of things Ferrari is still working on, the continued development aspect is somewhat substantiated by the fact that the 949-horsepower hybrid supercar is still running around Italy wearing camouflage - albeit light camo. As proof of this, the site also found a pair of enthusiastic amateur spy videos that get some good rolling shots of the LaFerrari out testing. They also show how well the car can handle a roundabout. Both videos are posted below.

Ferrari Enzo successor caught testing again

Although we're still not really sure what Ferrari plans to call its long-awaited successor to the Enzo, we're certain that this is going to be one mean car. We've heard that it will be called the F150, F150 Italia and even the F70 over the last year and a half. Regardless of its name, this guppy-faced prototype you see above is Ferrari's answer to the McLaren P1 and Porsche 918 Spyder with a rumored 900-horsepower hybrid powertrain.
Since the last time we saw this car testing, the only difference appears to be that the exhaust outlets now may be closer to production form, with dual pipes on each side sitting up higher in the fascia. Aside from that, these shots are much clearer and at a better angle allowing us to get an idea of what the final product might look like. We do see some of this car's details such as the headlight placement and shape similar to the 458 Italia and the massive brakes with drilled carbon ceramic rotors.
No word as to when we might see the production version of the car, but Ferrari did tease a couple photos of it last month and is much further along than spy shots we saw less than a year ago.