Enzo and his son Piero were often at odds as they ran Ferrari in the 1980s, and the eldest might in retrospect wish he’d lost the row over the Scuderia’s next Formula 1 car as the Ferrari approached. prohibition of turbocharging.
Chief engineer John Barnard had decided “to advance as many technical steps as I thought I could safely do” and so created a car with a new 3.5-liter 65-degree V12 engine; a gearbox switched by an electronically controlled servomotor; a carbon fiber chassis with a completely separate body; and electronically controlled suspension using a Marelli trip computer.
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The 640 was originally intended to be introduced in the 1988 season, but was so advanced that it only arrived at the first race of 1989, and even then with serious doubts about its reliability.
These proved unfounded in Brazil as Nigel Mansell piloted the first semi-automatic F1 to victory, before the innovative carbon fiber structure helped save Gerhard Berger when he crashed in Italy .
Reliability was generally poor, however, with Berger finishing only three of 15 races. If only that could have been sorted out, surely Ferrari would have won the title that year.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2022-05-27 04:01:22
