Another change at Ferrari

OCTOBER 7, 2009


Another change at Ferrari










Ferrari has announced that Luca Marmorini is returning to the team to become the head of the engine and electronics department. The 48-year-old left Maranello after 10 years with Toyota in Cologne. He was in charge of engine design at Toyota from 2002 onwards but decided to leave the team earlier this year.
Marmorini joined Ferrari in 1990 after finishing a doctorate in mechanical engineering at the University of Pisa. Two years later he became the head of the calculation department in Maranello and in 1995 was named project leader for a V12 engine study at a time when the Italian team was working on three parallel programmes to establish whether it was better to develop the V12, the V10 or the V8. The V12 development was later abandoned and Marmorini switched to developing the V10 programme and he worked closely with Paolo Martinelli on the engines which powered the Ferrari F1 cars in 1997, 1998 and 1999. In the middle of the final year he was headhunted by Toyota and lured to Cologne where he began designing a V12 for the Japanese. The rules then changed and V12s were outlawed and so in 2000 he designed a V10 and moved up the ladder in Cologne to become technical director (engines).
The announcement means that France's Gilles Simon will be moving on after 16 years with the team. He was initially head of engine design after heading the V10 programme mentioned above. He then replaced Martinelli as head of the entire engine department in 2006. During his time in charge Simon's engines won six Drivers' World Championships and eight Constructors' titles.
This is the third significant change in the Ferrari technical team in recent months with the departure of head of aerodynamics John Iley and the reorganisation of the racing team to move Luca Balderisseri to a factory based job.
http://www.grandprix.com/ns/ns21899.html