28
can be two decisive horsepower. We just went
to Le Mans for the VdeV event, and scoring
the pole on the cathedral of speed in front of
30 cars and 60 drivers made us particularly
proud».
Let’s hit the personal side. What is your
favorite kind of racing? Endurance and
prototypes or open‐wheel and sprint
races?
«I have a passion for whatever type of series
that brings wins. Sprint or endurance, it’s
competition that drives the weekend and it
must be approached in completely different
ways. In single‐make championships nothing
must happen and the engine should run
without an hitch. The customers must be
satisfied and there must not be suspect but
reliability and balance. This is what a winning
weekend looks like in a single‐make series. In
endurance or sprint racing there is a desire to
be at the front and it’s possible to push the
engine to give it the winning three more
horsepower. It’s meant to be that way».
How did your experience in the Florida
Winter Series go?
«It’s been a sensational experience for us.
Being entrusted by the Ferrari Driver
Academy to overview their engines ‐ rebuilds,
assistance, ECU Mapping ‐ has made us really
proud. It also gave us some more experience
in order to understand a kind of dynamic that
are different compared to the one we follow
usually as it was a training camp for drivers.
Nothing was left to fate in the 24 hours that
covered the event. During the races, the
orgazation and logistics were set‐up in one
way, while for the rest of the time the drivers
underwent physical and technical training, the
mechanics lifted up the cars and we provided
the engine maintenance and trained the
drivers about the management. We had the
only balancing instrument in our hands and
we had to make sure that all the 15 drivers
started with the same potential».
Can you give a suggestion to the young
engineers who want to specialize in
working on racing engines?
«We are lucke to collaborate with the
University of Parma. Two years ago they asked
for our help regarding an engine they used on
the Formula SAE (the academic formula
competition). We willingly accepted with the
only condition to establish a cooperation in
terms of internships, training and and the
arrival of people preparing for a degree. The
suggestion I can give is: if you want to get into
the world of motorsport, don’t be too
academic but turn to situations like ours in
order to put your recent study to fruition as
they don’t always have a real‐life impact.
Observing how a company works in
motorsport one can learn a lot of things that
aren’t written in textbooks. I lived this
experience in first person when I got my
engineering degree and joined Alfa Romeo.
Even before getting the degree, try to put your
studies to fruition in a structure that lives
motorsport day by day. Nobody will regret it».
Last but not least: is the future of racing in
hybrid and low emission engines?
«An engine builder welcomes this new
challenge with interest but also with lots of
difficulties coming as this kind of power units
still have high costs and a company like ours
wouldn’t be able to afford them. Probably, we
are headed in that direction, even though
such kind of technology is limited to the big
car corporations or to a kind of races where
somebody can draw resources from the
manufactures, dedicating big budgets to
research, development and experimentation.
It hasn’t been required to structures like ours
so far but I think the future is headed that
way. Although I can’t deny that I’m more
attracted to the sound of an atmospheric V12
than a new‐generation turbo…»
