The 2014 Formula 1 cars are so complex, that fixing an issue which would have taken two hours last year, will now take double that according to Ferrari’s technical director Pat Fry.
Ferrari, among others, have lost half or even whole days to minor issues which would usually take far less time to fix, partly because the engineers are unfamiliar with the new cars, but mainly because they’re so complex.
“The cars are so complicated, it takes a while to get in and find the problems,” said Fry. “It’s harder getting to the bits you need to change than changing the bits themselves.
“I would have thought the things that have set us back and cost us four hours would have taken half the time [in 2013].
“I guess there’s a certain level of familiarity with what we had in the past [though].”
The complexity and therefore the time required to fix an issue is costing the teams valuable test time, and Fry believes that is exaggerating the extent of a team’s reliability.
“Once you’ve got the car running, quite a few people have proven that they’re actually quite reliable,” he added.
“It’s getting it to the point where it is ready to do that that is the challenge. But that will come.”
There is a fear amongst the teams that should an issue be found during Saturday practice, as is often the case, the car won’t be repaired in time for qualifying.
