Industry News
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<< October 07
News for 14th November 2007
McLaren appeal hearing moved to London
Due to the current industrial unrest in Paris, the venue of the FIA World Motor Sport Council’s hearing of an appeal by the Woking, UK based McLaren-Mercedes Formula One team has been moved to London.
The hearing will take place as scheduled on Thursday and will consider McLaren’s appeal against the decision of the Brazilian Grand Prix stewards not to penalise cars from rival teams for irregularities in their fuel.
The Woking, UK based McLaren-Mercedes team lodged its appeal after the Brazilian race when it was revealed the fuel samples taken from BMW Sauber cars and Williams-Toyotas were outside temperature limits and which can affect car performance. If the appeal is upheld and the rival cars are excluded from the result, it is possible that McLaren driver Lewis Hamilton could move up to fourth place and thus score enough points to win the drivers championship.
Renault admits having McLaren data
The Enstone, UK based Renault Sport Formula One team has issued a statement in which it admitted that it had received proprietary technical data relating to the rival McLaren teams 2006 F1 car after it recruited a former member of that team.
The statement reads, “Following the notification of the FIA for the ING Renault F1
Team representatives to appear in front of the World Council, the team wishes to clarify the situation.
“On the 6th September 2007 it came to our attention that an engineer (Mr Phil Mackereth) who joined the team from McLaren in Sept 2006 had brought with him some information that was considered to be proprietary to McLaren. This information was contained on old style floppy discs and included copies of some McLaren engineering drawings and some technical spreadsheets.
“This information was loaded at the request of Mr Mackereth onto his personal directory on the Renault F1 Team file system. This was done without the knowledge of anyone in authority in the team. As soon as the situation was brought to the attention of the team's technical management, the following actions were taken:
“The information was completely cleansed from the team's computer systems and a formal investigation was started. We promptly informed McLaren of the situation and immediately after the FIA.
“Since then we have constantly and regularly kept McLaren and the FIA informed on all relevant findings.
“Mr Mackereth was immediately suspended from his position. The original floppy discs were impounded and sent to our solicitors for return to McLaren.
“Our formal investigation showed that early in his employment with Renault Mr Mackereth made some of our engineers aware of parts of this information in the form of a few reduced scale engineering drawings. These drawings covered four basic systems as used by McLaren and were: the internal layout of the fuel tank, the basic layout of the gear clusters, a tuned mass damper and a suspension damper.
“Subsequent witness statements from the engineers involved have categorically stated that having been briefly shown these drawings, none of this information was used to influence design decisions relating to the Renault car. In the particular case of the tuned mass damper, these had already been deemed illegal by the FIA and therefore the drawing was of no value.
“The suspension damper drawing hinted that the McLaren design might be similarly considered illegal and a subsequent clarification from the FIA confirmed this based upon our crude interpretation of the concept.
“ING Renault F1 Team have co-operated fully with McLaren and the FIA in this matter to the extent that the team has invited McLaren's independent experts to come and assess the team's computer systems and inspect the cars and the design records, to demonstrate that this unfortunate incident has not in anyway influenced the design of the cars.
“ING Renault F1 Team have acted with complete transparency towards McLaren and the FIA, being proactive in solving this matter and we are fully confident in the judgment of the World Council.”
Representatives of the Renault F1 Team have been summoned to appear before a hearing of the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Monaco on December 6.
In September the McLaren team was fined $100m (£47.5m) and forfeited their points in the 2007 F1 Constructors World Championship points after it was found guilty of being in possession of confidential information on the rival Ferrari team’s 2007 car.
Ecclestone holds espionage crisis meeting
According to a report in the UK’s Daily Telegraph newspaper Formula One impresario Bernie Ecclestone last week held a ‘crisis meeting’ at his London office to determine the extent of an apparent industrial espionage culture in F1.
The Telegraphs story says that representatives from each team, apart from Ferrari, McLaren and Renault, who are currently involved in espionage cases, attended the meeting and that the F1 teams will agree to internal investigations being carried out with the aim of ending such ‘spying’ allegations.
Brawn joins Honda
British engineer Ross Brawn has joined the Brackley, UK based Honda Racing Formula One organisation as its new team principal, with effect from the end of November.
Brawn was previously the technical director at the rival Ferrari Formula One team based in Maranello, Italy, a position he held for ten years until the end of 2006 when he decided to take a sabbatical year out of F1 in 2007.
Working alongside Honda Racing CEO Nick Fry, Brawn will be responsible for the design, manufacture and engineering the team's 2008 car.
Brawn said, "I am very excited to be joining the Honda Racing F1 Team. Honda has a proud heritage in Formula One and the opportunity to help the team to realise its potential represents a fantastic new challenge for me in the sport.
"The team has already done a great job of giving due consideration to its future and has spent a good deal of time putting in place both people and first class engineering resources to achieve its ambitions. I look forward to working alongside what I know to be some very talented people and helping Honda to rediscover its winning ways."
Fry said, "Today's announcement that Ross Brawn is to join our team is a very satisfying conclusion to the process of refreshing and revitalising a strong and determined team. Ross obviously needs no introduction.
"His experience of winning world championships in Formula One will be crucial as we seek to put Honda back into championship contention and I am delighted that we will be working together to achieve that."
Ferrari F1 management reshuffle
The Maranello, Italy based sportscar manufacturer Ferrari has confirmed that Stefano Domenicali will take over as the director of its Gestione Sportiva (competition department) starting in January 2008.
Ferrari also confirmed the appointment of key posts in its Formula One team. Mario Almondo is the new director of operations, Aldo Costa is the new technical director and Gilles Simon the new director of the engine department.
2008 Qatar MotoGP meeting to be held at night
The opening round of the 2008 MotoGP motorcycle racing world championship at the Losail circuit in Qatar next March will become the first MotoGP event to take place at night under floodlights.
The night race was given the go ahead by MotoGP series promoter Dorna following a successful test under the lights on Monday which included a simulated power failure in which a back-up power system was activated.
Penn State University research shows potential of ‘microbial fuel cells’ for hydrogen production
So-called ‘microbial fuel cells’ can turn almost any biodegradable organic material into hydrogen gas, according to a research paper by Bruce Logan, a civil engineering professor, and colleague Shaoan Cheng at Penn State University published in the Proceedings of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. The two scientists have filed a patent for the process that their paper describes.
"This is a method of using renewable organic matter, using anything that's biodegradable and being able to generate hydrogen from that material," Prof. Logan told a Reuters/Planet Ark reporter this week.
Logan and Cheng used naturally-occurring bacteria in an electrolysis cell with acetic acid. The bacteria absorb the acetic acid and release electrons and protons, creating up to 0.3 volts of electricity. When a more electricity is added from an external source, hydrogen gas is produced, using about 10% of the energy required by hydrolysis, where an electric charge is run through water to break it down into its constituent parts of oxygen and hydrogen. The bacteria do most of the work, breaking the organic material into subatomic particles.
The process could be used with cellulose, glucose, acetate or other volatile acids, according to Prof. Logan said. The only emission is water, and the microbial reactors could, for example, be operated using waste water from food processing plants and other sites where waste water is treated.
(www.engr.psu.edu/ce/enve/logan.htm)
Renault to launch Logan eco² concept at Shanghai Challenge Bibendum
Renault is introducing the Logan eco² Concept, an experimental vehicle which will contest the 2007 Michelin-organised Challenge Bibendum in Shanghai. The car produces 97 g/km of CO2 emissions, and to qualify for the Renault eco² appellation, complies with three criteria common to all its eco² range, which covers 40% of its complete model range:
- They must emit less than 140g of CO2/km or else run on biofuel,
- They must be manufactured in an ISO 14001-certified factory,
- They must be 95% end-of-life reusable, and at least 5% of the plastics used in their production must be sourced from recycling.
The Logan eco² was manufactured at the Pitesti Dacia plant in Romania, which has been ISO 14001-certified since 2005, while the finished vehicle contains 8.3% of recycled plastics and is 95%-reusable by weight.
VW Group to assess suppliers’ carbon footprints
Volkswagen will expect its suppliers to become greener, Robert Brescia, Chief Logistics Officer, Volkswagen of America told a U.S. Automotive Logistics conference reported by SupplerBusiness.com: “We expect suppliers to be culturally compatible with the strategy of VW group now and in the future … Our new set of criteria for supplier selection globally and regionally includes a carbon footprint measure.”
VW’s U.S. subsidiary recently announced a partnership with Carbonfund.org, under which the carbon emissions from every new VW sold in the US between 1st September 2007 and 2nd January 2008 will be offset for a year.