Formula 1: Engines Not to Blame for Ferrari's Failures this Season, Says Marmorini

At the start of the season, Ferrari was looking to put the disappointing last few years behind them and start afresh with the new engine regulations. But their excitement soon turned into further disappointment as they found themselves trailing to rival teams by huge margins.

Ferrari is currently third in the constructors' standings, 251 points adrift of championship leaders Mercedes. They are yet to win a race this season and their best finish was Fernando Alonso' second place in the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The under-powered engines, manufactured by the Italian company, are seen as the main reason for their struggle. On the contrary, bigger units produced by Mercedes Benz and Renault are much powerful and provide the competitive edge in the straight line.

Former Ferrari engine boss Luca Marmorini, who was recently axed by newly-appointed team principal Marco Mattiacci, revealed that he was instructed to design a compact unit as the team planned to compensate the lost power with the aerodynamic solutions.

There was a general feeling that Marmorini is to blame for the Prancing Horse's recent struggles as he failed to produce a powerful V6 Turbocharged engine.

Marmorini, however, said that project manager of the F14 T Nikolas Tombazis asked him to make a small power unit.

"As if a company with the history of Ferrari has forgotten how to make engines! I mean, I accept any criticism, but do not tell me that there are people at Maranello who do not know the business of turbos, hybrids," Marmorini stressed.

"Let's set the record straight - with my colleagues I made a smaller size (engine) than Mercedes and Renault because that is what Mr Tombazis, the project manager of the car, asked for," the Italian revealed.

"He said he wanted a very compact PU, with small radiators, because the reduced power would be compensated by aerodynamic solutions that give us an advantage over the Mercedes and Renault cars.

"It was exactly like that, except that when we found the competition, we had less power but the compensation from the aerodynamics was not there."

Marmorini said that the legendary squad is putting faith in inexperienced people and risking the foundation on which the team is based.

"Ferrari also runs the risk of damaging the bedrock on which the many past successes were built. I don't speak for me as I'm already gone. But I'm sorry for the good engineers who are still there and demoralised."

The former Ferrari engine chief, however, rejected claims that he has signed with French engine manufacturer Renault and insisted that he would take a decision of joining any team only after some time.