Ferrari to Investigate Alonso's Engine Failure on Wednesday

After the first 3 races of the 2010 Formula One season, Ferrari entered the rumor mill in terms of engine reliability. During the first race in Bahrain, both Fernando Alonso and Felipe Massa changed their engines prior to the start of the race, while in the recent Malaysian GP, Alonso's powerplant suffered a failure with 2 laps to go.

Additionally, both BMW Sauber-Ferrari drivers had to retire on Sunday, at Sepang, with engine problems, although it was later confirmed Alonso's was different.

Shortly after the Malaysian Grand Prix, Ferrari confirmed that the engine failures recorded by BMW Sauber were due to “a malfunction of the electronic engine management,” provided by McLaren Electronic Systems (MES). As far as Alonso's problem goes, it seems the failure was caused by a “momentary overheating.”

What's interesting though is the fact that both times when Ferrari experienced engine problems happened on “hot races.” Soon after the Bahrain opener, team principal Stefano Domenicali reckoned the car's aerodynamics needs to be improved in order to produce a better engine cooling during the race, hinting that such updates would be fitted onto the F10 from as soon as the Malaysian race. Obviously, it didn't work out that well for the Scuderia.

Another hypothesis regarding Alonso's engine failure has to do with his clutch problem during the Sunday race. The Spaniard experienced a gearbox breakdown during the formation lap of the Sepang race, competing the entire afternoon with a broken clutch. It is believed this might have had some effect on his late engine issue, although “a more precise analysis can only be made when the engine is back at the works (factory) on Wednesday afternoon,” confirmed Ferrari via a press release.