Formula 1 News

Raikkonen’s engine failure in Valencia caused again by broken con rod 

It seems that once again, a broken connecting rod has put a big question mark on Ferrari’s reliability and was the main cause for Kimi Raikkonen‘s engine failure during the 2008 European Grand Prix at the newly built street circuit in Valencia. The Ferrari technicians in Maranello received this morning the blown engine and confirmed that a rod that connects the crankshaft to the piston had failed again, just like on Felipe Massa’s engine during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

However, the engineers were already aware of a potential risk in general terms with the engine (codenamed 056)  fitted to the Finn’s car, which was on its second race, given that the con rods were part of the same batch used on Massa’s engine in Hungary. But despite this, changing the engine on Raikkonen’s car would have seen the Finn start from the back of the grid in a circuit where overtaking was impossible.

Video: Kimi Raikkonen retires from European GP (Valencia) after an engine failure