Michael Schumacher's victory in Sunday's European Grand Prix in Germany made Ferrari the first team to win two Formula 1 races in a row with the same V8 engine. Although this feat went unnoticed in the victory celebrations at the Nurburgring track, here at Ferrari headquarters it was welcome confirmation of the reliability of the new motor, which has caused so much trouble in Malaysia and Australia.
"For us this was a very important result. We are fully satisfied in regards both to the engine's reliability and power," said engineer Paolo Martinelli, head of Ferrari's motor division.
Formula 1 cars this year had to replace the 3000cc V10 engines used last season with new 2,400cc V8s.
Schumacher's win and the third place finish for teammate Felipe Massa, his first Formula 1 podium, "were comforting to say the least, because they were the confirmation that we are on the right track. Right now we have a very slight advantage. Let's see how things go in Barcelona," Martinelli added.
At the Spanish Grand Prix Schumacher and Massa will be able to use a new motor, while world champion and standings leader Fernando Alonso, second on Sunday, will have to use the same engine he had in Germany, because of Formula 1's one-engine-two-race rule.
Looking ahead to the upcoming races, Spain will be followed by the Monaco Grand Prix, Martinelli said that "what we need to do now is stick to our timetable schedule for development. At the beginning of the season we made some mistakes but we rectified them in time and the motor has become reliable. Now we must work to make sure we remain competitive".
After a positive season start in Bahrain, where Schumacher came in second behind Alonso, Ferrari was plagued with engine problems in Malaysia where Massa's engine was changed twice and Schumacher's once, pushing him back ten places in the starting grid.
Despite this, Massa was able to finish fifth and Schumacher sixth.
Neither Schumacher nor Massa finished the next Grand Prix in Australia but this was due to accidents by both drivers and not the engine, which was the same used in Sepang. However, in Australia Schumacher did complain about insufficient power which had given him a poor grid position, 10th.
This problem was resolved in the three weeks before the San Marino Grand Prix where Schumacher grabbed pole position and went on to win the race with the same engine he used on Sunday.
