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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

Party boy videos his night of drinking, driving - and downfall

So, I've thrown around the word "Schadenfreude" a lot around here. Roughly translated as "joy at another's misfortune," it's one of those lovely German-language compound words that perfectly sums up some part of the human condition. Another of my favorites is " B ackpfeifengesicht." This one translates as "a face in need of a fist." In this story out of Morocco about a rich young man drinking, driving, and crashing a Ferrari, both of those words come immediately to mind. According to NDTV, a 20-year-old spent a wild night on the town in Rabat back in April. The unnamed man spent his evening partying, drinking champagne, dancing at clubs, and racing his slate-colored Ferrari California around the city. Someone who was with him recorded the evening for posterity, and caught him drinking out of a bottle of champagne, completely annihilated, while driving and generally acting the fool. As you can imagine, the evening didn't end well for him. In the morning, he was still apparently drunk and driving around. He smashed into a small, silver sedan, which caved in that car's door and mangled the California's frontend. Unfazed, our man shot a little video of himself dancing around the crash scene, giving the cops lip, and smoking in the back of an ambulance. I guess he thought his wealth and status would get him out of trouble. Joke's on him, though. Morocco's official MAP news agency stated that the Ferrari driver was found guilty of driving while intoxicated and driving without insurance. For this, he got two years in jail and was slapped with a 2,000 euro fine. And that, friends, is Schadenfreude and B ackpfeifengesicht in action. Related Video News Source: NDTV Auto News Weird Car News Ferrari drunk driving morocco

Why newly independent Ferrari may be forced into fuel-efficient cars

The repercussions from Ferrari's pending transition into an independent automaker won't be understood for some time, but one of the biggest consequences could be that the iconic Italian marque will be forced into building more fuel-efficient vehicles.
As Wired points out, while Ferrari built fewer than 7,000 cars in 2013, its status as a public company could trigger pressure from shareholders to build more six-figure supercars and grand tourers. In turn, doing so could lead the company afoul of US Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, which dictate that any company that sells over 10,000 vehicles needs to maintain a certain fuel economy average across its fleet or risk fines.
With arguably its most popular model, the 458 Italia, hitting just 17 miles per gallon on the highway and its most efficient model, the turbocharged California T, stuck at 18 mpg, Ferrari isn't in a great place to hit the government's mandates (which are somewhat convoluted as Wired explains). The gist of the situation is that Ferrari will either need to continue limiting the number of vehicles it sells each year - a move that's certain to upset shareholders and irk its boss, Sergio Marchionne - or radically improve the fuel economy of its cars at the risk of performance. Rock, meet hard place.