FIA race director Charlie Whiting says the governing body has no plans of intervening over the issue of Ferrari’s smoking SF71-H.
The unusual phenomenon started over winter testing, when every time Ferrari fired up its new SF71-H, the car expired a heavy cloud of oily smoke, engulfing the Scuderia’s garage and those of its neighbors.
Once a heavy smoker himself, Mercedes non executive chairman Niki Lauda admits to being regularly inconvenienced by the Scuderia’s heavy fumes linked to the car’s oil breather.
“We suffocate in our garage every time they start it,” Lauda told Auto Motor und Sport.
“The FIA should look into it.”
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Whiting hints at procedure changes to stop pitstop blunders
However, F1 race director Whiting said that despite the smoking, checks have shown that Ferrari’s engine is not consuming more oil than it is permitted to.
“I’m sure they’ll sort that out,” said Whiting.
Sky Sports Ted Kravitz investigated the nuisance earlier this year and explained its origin.
“Breathers are essential parts of any power unit on every car, but this year they’ve been subject to a new rule which says they must vent to the outside and cannot be routed back into the engine,” said the Sky commebtator.
“This suggests teams were doing that previously which could have given them a power boost – but anyway, what is unusual, is that these Ferrari-engined cars are spewing out more oil than Renault or Mercedes-engined cars.
“There’s a fine mist of oil coming out the Ferrari, Haas and Sauber’s vents when out on track or even just when they are going down the pitlane.
“It is, though, a different thing to oil burning which is now limited to 1.8 litres per race. That’s oil that gets consumed within the combustion chamber. This is just used engine oil – a lot of it!”
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